2005 has had no shortage of pieces praising/debating/ surveying the nature and purpose of pop genius Kanye West, and this week’s Stranger piece by Larry Mizell Jr. is as good as any I’ve read.

The piece is rich with ideas and sharp writing, but my favorite bit is Mizell’s nailing of a key West trait that I’d previously only been able to describe as his “funny-as-shitness”:

He’s arrogant as hell, and funny like you wish you were, saying the most off-the-wall shit at exactly the right moment with just the right amount of nonchalance.

That’s it exactly. Yeah, the wit of the writing is dazzling, but what puts it over is West’s delivery. Even when he’s just spitting shit like “What would you do for a Klondike?/Or two dykes who look Christina Milian-like?” he manages to make something out of it, for the reasons Mizell explicates above.

Check out the piece here, and check out Kanye West tomorrow night at the Everett Events Center. (I’ll be the one throwing underpants from the sixth row.)