You might love Kanye West, you might hate Kanye West, but either way I am sure you have heard Kanye West. Whether he is accusing the President of not caring for black people, or interrupting acceptance speeches, or just ranting in general, I am sure that you have heard Kanye West. But have you listened?
Few celebrities are as scrutinized, made fun of, and generally disliked in the way Kanye West is. Yes, you could argue that a lot of that is his own fault as Kanye is never one to shy away from doing and saying what he wants, regardless of what the consequences might be. And while Kanye is saying some very outlandish things, some very off the cuff things, and saying them very loudly, Mr. West is also pointing out something that is often overlooked or ignored in Hollywood today: “racism still alive, they just be concealin’ it.”
In September, Kanye West sat down with BBC’s Zane Lowe to discuss his most recent #1 album, “Yeezus” (watch it here!) and was, even for Kanye, refreshingly honest. Less than 10 minutes into the interview, Kanye shifts the focus of the interview from his music to his endeavors outside of music (fashion, architecture, etc.) and consequently, race. But wait, Kanye West is a mega millionaire. He is recognized and celebrated. Is he really complaining about being oppressed? Being marginalized? Yes. Yes he is.
Throughout the interview, Kanye highlights instances throughout his career as a “creative” in which he has been marginalized due to his status as a celebrity, as a rapper, a a black man…
Case 1) The Air Yeezys: Mr. West, who has studied fashion extensively in France, designs the Air Yeezy. It auctions on eBay for $90,000. Kanye does not get a call from Nike about any future sneaker projects.
Case 2) The Leather Jogging Pants: Apparently Kanye “Went to Fendi with the leather jogging pant 6 years ago and they said ‘no’. Now How many mother fuckers you seen with a leather jogging pant.” Kanye was instead encouraged to stick with t-shirt designs, not high fashion.
Case 3) Surround Vision: Yeezy creates a viewing experience for a short film he shot in Qatar with a screen in front of, above, below, to the right of, and to the left of the audience. He thens does an interview with the NY Times in order to get the word out about surround vision. Surround vision does not appear in the interview. NY Times run an interview with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg shortly after in which they predict something similar to surround vision as the future of film.
Kanye goes on to mention a few more times in which he feels he has not been given credit for his work. The main theme that runs through all of these instances is that Kanye West does not fit the mold of what people expect from a black man and/or a rapper. In response to all the criticism of Kanye’s track “I am a God”, he replies “Would it be better if I said I was a gangster?…a pimp?” From the beginning of his career Kanye has been breaking those molds as a Polo and skinny jeans wearing rapper making songs like “Jesus Walks” and “Family Business” while coming up during the era of the Dirty South and ringtone rap in hip hop. Maybe generations of black men before West weren’t wearing Versace or Givenchy while they were being told what they couldn’t do, but, on some level, these struggles are same. America has constantly been telling black men what the can and can not do, who they can and can not be, and things are no different in 2013 for one of the richest black celebrities in America.
In his song “Gorgeous” from the 2010 album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” Kanye raps “As long as I’m in Polo smiling they think they got me” referring to the societal structure hoping to keep him in a certain mold. Kanye responds 3 years later on “New Slaves” as he screams “Fuck you and your corporations. y’all niggas can’t control me!” But they sure try. Kanye has the credentials to explore different artistic outlets outside of music, but to society he is already a rapper. Rappers don’t design high fashion. Rappers don’t influence theatre and performance art. Rappers are thugs. Cut it out, Mr. West!
Whether you like Kanye or not, Kanye West is a talented artist. Kanye West is a creative with a vision yet people’s preconceived ideas of what Kanye West should do, or more specifically, what he shouldn’t, limit his ability to express himself. Even with all his antics we should let Kanye create and produce because he has proven that he can create and produce better than nearly all of his contemporaries. Did we learn nothing from DuBois’s “Criteria for Negro Art”? Let’s make all the beautiful art we can! And in Kanye’s own words “dopeness is what I like most. Dopeness. People who want to make things as dope as possible.” And honestly, there’s no reason why we should limit the amount of dopeness out there, even if it means Kanye breaking out of his rapper mold and scaring a few old white execs.
This is incredibly interesting. I’m a huge Kanye fan, but I had no idea that he had attempted to pursue other careers, such as fashion. Society and media want to box him into his niche of rapper, but knowing Kanye, he will not take that, and make it work. He has the resources to make these things happen for himself without anyone’s help, so what is he waiting for? Why is he going to Nike when he can just make his own sneaker company?
Kanye West has always been a little over the top and egotistical to me… However I really enjoy a lot of his music and do agree that he is a talented artist on more than just the music playing field. Before reading this I really didn’t know the extent to which Kanye has tried to push his career. He is a multi millionaire and a “rap god” to some but it appears that even with all of that success he still faces oppression because of his skin color. It’s a shame that society can still be this way but it is real. I think if people knew the challenges Kanye has faced they might understand his egotistical self that tends to come out. Maybe that is him just trying to show the world that he has confidence in himself and can still do it without the help of those who he has felt oppressed by.
I agree that Kanye West should be able to create and do what he wants. While most rap and hip-hop artists have reached the point of the mundane in their approach to the genre, I find Kanye and his music to be refreshing. His outspoken nature permeates throughout and thus ,as you points out, it is interesting to me that this attitude carries over into his other pursuits as an artist as well. I commend Kanye for his efforts in trying to make himself appear to be something other than a rapper and I find it disturbing that society has such a difficult time with identifying him as such. With all the artists out there who are shamefully considered rappers (i.e. 2Chainz), some could take a lesson from the book of Kanye and learn to open up their world a little bit more. There is nothing wrong with expanding your boundaries as a “creative,” and the fact that Kanye receives no recognition for that in this day and age is concerning to say the least.
I think Kanye is a genius! Though his music is very edgy it keeps other artist on their feet. He keeps the game fresh and I always thought his song POWER spoke to our society. I feel this song speaks to how the white man continues to have power and how eventually the oppression of blacks will tip over and cause a revolt. How do I figure this? From the following lyrics:
The clock’s ticking, I just count the hours
Stop tripping, I’m tripping off the power (21st-Century schizoid man)
The system broken, the school is closed, the prison’s open
We ain’t got nothing to lose, motherfucker we rolling
Huh? Motherfucker we rolling
I feel Kayne said what every other black person wants to say. The system that is supposed to support us is in reality broken and the goal for the system is to keep the minority in the cells. I think the greatest line from the lyric above is “we ain’t got nothing to lose motherfucker we rolling.” I think Kanye is trying to tell his audience since the system is broken and sets us up to fail, why don’t we go out fighting, doing what we want, going against the grain? When I read this part of the lyric I think of Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die.” In McKay’s poem he says if we must die let it not be like animals and basically giving our enemies hell. So with that being said, Kanye is advancing the African American literary tradition by being repetitive and relaying a message much like African American artist before him, we must take a stand.
Very interesting read. While I agree that Kanye is, indeed, marginalized and receives discrimination to some degree based on his race, there is a certain approach that one must take in trying to receive the right kind of attention. Black people are already singled out to many degrees about their decorum, loudness, behavior, etc. I believe that his tantrums probably earn him a lot of scrutiny from organizations, media, people from any realm.
I will agree, however, that his art is used as propaganda according to the Dubois standard, so he receives Kudos in my book for that :-).