Kanye West has been known for being one the greatest artists of the 21st century and one of the most influential producers/rappers of all time, inspiring a whole new generation of hip/hop artists. While all of this is true, he’s also been one of the most controversial people in recent history. Starting with the 2009 VMA awards when he interrupted Taylor Swift’s award by stating that he believed that Beyonce should’ve won and when he was on the news after Hurricane Katrina he randomly said “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
Last year Kanye West’s repeated antisemitic statements led to Adidas, Balenciaga, and Gap ending their partnerships with him. He was banned from most social media platforms and dropped from Apple Music. His marriage to Kim Kardashian ended and many other celebrities distanced themselves from him. The New York Times recently did an expose of Kanye’s business partnerships. “Shortly after signing with Adidas, he met with designers at company headquarters in Germany to discuss ideas. He was so offended by their sketches, that he drew a swastika on one, shocking employees. He later told a Jewish Adidas manager to kiss a portrait of Hitler every day. He informed a member of the company’s executive board that he had paid a seven-figure settlement to one of his employees who accused him of repeatedly praising Hitler.” This is heartbreaking to read and think about. To even think that this is the same guy who made Graduation is crazy.
It seemed like it might be the end of his career….until he announced that he was working on new music. Rather than using his new album as a fresh start, he continues to create controversy. Starting weeks ago at his Vultures listening party for his album with Ty Dolla $ign. Kanye arrived wearing a normal hood over his head but later he put it up and made it look a lot like a KKK hood. This was an extremely bad look for Kanye and made a lot of his fans including me sick to their stomach.
What’s next for Kanye you ask? Well, his album Vultures is still supposed to be released on February 9th at midnight (I am not sure if I believe it because it’s been delayed so many times) which is supposed to feature lots of popular artists including Future, Playboi Carti, Young Thug, Kid Cudi & many more (if he releases it). Kanye was also recently featured in Playboi Carti’s new music video for his song “2024” which personally I hated. I was super excited for this video because Carti is my favorite artist but Kanye ruined the whole video for me because he was wearing the hood from the vultures show.
Kanye also recently posted an apology note to the Jewish community in Hebrew which at first I thought was great but then other people figured out that he most likely did this to receive more sales for his upcoming album. I do try to separate art from the artist, especially for Kanye and will definitely listen to his album even though it’s hard to do. Kanye has dropped from my 2nd most listened to, to 7th for me but I have more Kanye songs than any other artist on my main playlist.
