Kanye is undeniably a man of many talents. He created his own self titled fashion brand which is valued somewhere between 4 and 5 Billion Dollars. He founded his own record label. He is a philanthropist and entrepreneur, involved with various charities and architecture firms. Oh, and he has produced and released some of the most iconic music of the 21st century. The man is an iron suit away from being Tony Stark.
If that wasn't enough he retains a unique position on a list of controversial public figures. Off on their own, in the 'never want to hear from you again' tier you can find the Trump-esque characters. Somewhere down in the murky middle ground, you can find the likes of Kanye. Right now he'd be seated alongside Jada and Will Smith's Marriage, i.e any news on the matter is generally followed by a large sigh and a longing for when celebrities didn't shove their lives in our faces. Does anyone else miss the mystery? I am certain that famous people have always been extremely weird however most of the time it was behind closed doors and heard only in rumours. Things couldn't be more opposite now. Give a celebrity like Kanye an iPhone and a Twitter account and you have a ticking time bomb but instead of shrapnel, you have semi incoherent Kanye thoughts whistling past your face.
When you think of some of the most eyebrow-raising moments in popular culture over the past twenty years, it wouldn't be long until Kanye cropped up in conversation. From claiming "George Bush doesn't care about black people" on live tv, his long-running feud then friendship then feud again with Taylor Swift and most recently his onslaught of social media posts berating his ex-wife Kim Kardashian. There are more but I don't think anyone would gain anything from me just listing Kanye controversies. I just want to know when the wheels came off? Were they ever on? Did we just not know until social media gave us unlimited access to everything. Is this all just by-product of Kanye's genius? Throughout history, it has been well documented that to reach certain levels of success and greatness takes a corresponding level of intense dedication. A dedication which honestly seems like it could be maddening. The day to to day life of Ye must be a stress. Christ, I've crumbled under the pressure of a chipper order let alone multiple businesses all resting on your creative shoulders. To be clear this is absolutely no excuse for some of the things Kanye has done or said. He should absolutely be held accountable for that and shouldn't be able to just release new music and slide back into the shadows. I am, however, just incredibly intrigued by his mindset.
Maybe the most remarkable thing about Kanye is that time and time again, from controversy to controversy, millions of people still flock to the chapel of Ye. It is a testament to how impactful the early stages of his career were. Kanye was the underdog, an artist on the fringes, fighting to get his music in the hands of people he knew would love and appreciate it. The pink polo, backpack wearing producer turned rapper was a man for the people and we all wanted him to win. As his popularity grew and he branched into more and more industries he became less of an underdog but that spirit was still there. His forceful entry into the fashion industry closely mirrored his ascent into the world of music. A man so driven by his own self-belief that there was no option other than to end up on stage at the Grammys and on the runway at Paris Fashion Week.
It has been an absolutely incredible thing to watch as a fan. As time has gone on though I find myself, as I think many are, slowly disassociating from Kanye and his work. It feels very strange especially when he was an artist who had me in a complete chokehold as recently as 2016 when The Life Of Pablo came out. This was the album he played at a sold-out fashion show/concert at Madison Square Garden in New York. Music might have been one of the most exciting things that happened in that fairly awful year and Kanye was leading the charge. My friends and I waited for what seemed like a lifetime for that album to make it on Spotify. It might have been the first thing I did every morning. Wake up. Get out of bed. Check Spotify. Begrudgingly get on with my day. I hope I'm wrong but I don't know if Kanye will ever have my attention like that again.
As a brief intermission I would like to place my ranking of Kanye albums here. I won't be counting either Watch the Throne or Kids See Ghosts as these are both collaborative efforts. Right here we are:
Graduation
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Late Registration
The College Dropout
The Life Of Pablo
Yeezus
808s & Heartbreak
Ye
Jesus is King
Donda
You may agree or disagree with that list, you may not have a single opinion on Kanye's music and that is absolutely fine. I would be embarrassed to disclose how much internal deliberation it took me to come to a decision on that arbitrary list however, I think in amongst the decision making I found the root of my Kanye Problem. I still care. In my head, Kanye still has that underdog inside somewhere. He can proclaim himself a god all he wants. A god wouldn't release a song with Lil Pump. A god wouldn't wear a MAGA hat. Part of me thinks that no one has suffered more from the emergence of social media than Kanye. He seems to become addicted to spectacle and social media has given him an unfiltered platform to feed his addiction.
I would like to apologise for the following comparison but please hear me out.
Kanye is not dissimilar to the Fast and Furious Franchise.
Like I said, hear me out. In the first Fast and Furious films, the stakes are low. The film is grounded and is set in and around the grimey underworld of street racing. In the most recent film, the same exact characters from those earlier films WENT TO SPACE IN A CAR! If you don't see where I'm going with this yet I am sorry. That escalation of scale and spectacle is genuinely unbelievable, but there is a method to the madness. They knew that audiences couldn't just sit and watch people race on the back streets for a whole franchise. So, they begin to turn the dial and before you know there's a car with Ludacris and Tyrese inside strapped to a rocket and heading for a satellite. They have had to keep getting bigger in order for us all to come back. We had to see how mental it could get
Alas, we return to Kanye. Kanye has a reputation for getting loud before he releases music and over time his attempts at promotion have gone from memeable to aggressive. A rapid escalation that is not unlike a certain motor vehicle franchise. He has pushed all the boundaries. He's come out in support of Trump. He's made some very questionable comments in relation to slavery. He has harassed his ex-wife publicly and yet we still listen. How loud can Kanye get before we stop listening?
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