Slightly Wrong There, Kanye

 We have this rather remarkable statement from Kanye West today:

“I see good things about Hitler also” Ye said. “I love everyone. Jewish people are not going to tell me you can love us, and you can love what we’re doing to you with the contracts, and you can love what we’re pushing with the pornography. But this guy that invented highways, invented the very microphone that I use as a musician, you can’t say out loud that this person ever did anything good, and I’m done with that.”

Let's just leave aside the gratuitous anti-Semitism there, and deal with Kanye's factual claims, because this statement is so outrageous that nobody except Green Eagle is going to concern himself  with the truth of Kanye's claims about Hitler's alleged inventive brilliance.

First of all, Hitler did not invent highways, which date back at least to Roman times.  Here is  picture of a Roman one that predates Hitler by about 1800 years, still with its original pavement:

Kanye's claim is probably based on Hitler's beginning construction of the Autobahn system in Germany, which was designed to allow for better military transportation around the country.  This idea was not unique to Hitler- the same idea occurred, for example to General Eisenhower at that time, and led to the construction of the Interstate Highway system in the US, when Eisenhower became President.  Remember that, even in the early days of World War II, horses provided a major means of military transportation; they were replaced for obvious reasons by mechanized vehicles during the war, which made the need for appropriate roadways obvious to just about everyone.  

A little more interesting to me is Kanye's claim that Hitler "invented" the microphone that Kanye used for his recordings.  This is, of course utter nonsense (you probably didn't need to be told that.)  Hitler famously insisted on using an early model of condenser microphone manufactured by the Neumann company, which continues to this day to be the world's leading manufacturer of high end microphones.  His use of this microphone caused it to be nicknamed the "Hitler microphone."  Here is a picture of Hitler with a pair of them:

Hitler had as much to do with inventing these microphones as he did with building the Mercedes limousines he traveled around in, or for that matter, for sculpting the Matterhorn.  In fact, the condenser capsule used in Neumann microphones was originally developed in the United States, but American manufacturers abandoned it in favor of ribbon microphones.  No condenser microphone was made in the US for decades after that time, but they became standard for high end microphones in Europe.

The microphones which Kanye uses are likely to be the Neumann U87, the pre-eminent high end vocal microphone used in recording today, which currently sells for about $3300.00.  Here is a picture of one:

This is indeed a remote descendant of the microphone that Hitler used, but I repeat, Hitler had exactly as much to do with inventing it as I do with having invented the Stratocaster I own.  

If you are interested in learning more about this microphone, here is an article about its history from Sweetwater.

All of which is a pretty minor issue, but I thought it might be best to have the record straight somewhere.  Anyway, what a dick this guy is.