As one of Kanye West’s biggest fans, I can truly say I don’t see much wrong with the guy. What is important is that I am one of the few mega fans that can truly analyse the hate and say, “yeah, that was a pretty douchebag thing to say”.
I’ve analysed the key Kanye moments that almost cancelled the greatest living artist of the 21st century – his words, not mine. However, I do not disagree.
2009 VMA Awards Incident:
“I’m really happy for you, imma let you finish, but Beyonce has one of the greatest videos of all time! All time!” The sentence that basically shook the entertainment industry to its core. Such unwarranted honesty had never been spoken at an awards show and probably won’t be spoken again.
The incident took place in 2009 and was probably the beginning of my love for Kanye West. I hadn’t seen such awe inspiring honesty come from a man ever. Later in life, I noticed the bottle of Hennessy and I realised he was just drunk. Regardless, Kanye genuinely believed his friend Beyonce had the better video, and to be honest so did the rest of the world. However Taylor Swift won and that’s that. Him rushing up on stage and basically traumatising that poor girl and somehow making her look like the most awkward person on that stage is undoubtedly reason enough to dislike him.
Taylor Swift winning that award for Best Video in 2009 was her transition from a country music star to a global icon. Kanye coming up onto the stage while intoxicated to speak the ‘truth’ is undoubtedly one of the biggest lows I have seen from the man I place on a pedestal. Nevertheless, Kanye’s one year hiatus resulted in him leaving his home in LA and setting up camp in Hawaii to craft his magnum opus, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy which was released in 2010 giving him the much needed comeback album following the VMA debacle.
2013 Performance For Grandson Of Authoritarian President Of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev:
This incident was shrouded in controversy because Kanye was aware of the wrongdoings of the former President, like stealing 8.5 billion dollars from the nation’s treasury fund and placing it in an offshore account. Nursultan was also for limited freedom of speech and religion among other horrific human rights issues.
Ironically, Kanye attended a rally against the former President that same year. However, he still chose to play the show for the grandson of the President, earning a reported 3 million dollars for the few hours of work. I have not encountered a higher level of douchebagery. It’s stuff like this that makes me quiet down my Kanye appreciation for brief periods of time.
2018 Support For Trump:
To be fair to Kanye, he was completely uninformed about Trump’s policies and had no idea what Trump was enacting as president, according to his wife Kim Kardashian as well as himself. He said he simply identified with Trump’s character and ego because it reminded him of himself. Kanye began his career as a hip hop beat maker for Jay Z and was told he did not have what it takes to become a rapper because he was from a middle class background and can’t relate to the lower socioeconomic fan base that gravitated towards hip hop. Similarly, Trump was told he can’t be president and groped his way to The White House.
Nevertheless, even after Kanye was made aware of Trump’s actions as president, Kanye did not back down – no sir, Kanye did not back down at all. He doubled down. So… yeah. Sorry guys. As a Kanye fan I can completely understand why you would think “hey, this guy is a huge douchebag”.
Giving Up Traditional Hip Hop Music For Gospel:
Now before we get into this one, I just want to say Kanye has never made a bad album – in my opinion – and his latest foray into gospel music in the form of Jesus is King is a freeing experience to listen to… and that’s coming from an Atheist. However, the man went from rapping about his sex addiction with lines such as “careless whispers, eye fucking, biting ass, neck, ears, hand, legs, eating ass”, to “Jesus saved me, now I’m sane. I know God is the voice that pick me up. I know Christ is the fountain that fill me cup”. In all honesty, that is a beautiful line from Jesus Is King. However as a fan, I can wholeheartedly agree that going from being one of hip hop’s pioneers to gospel music’s newest stars is a hard pill to swallow.
There is no doubt that this transition into gospel music has cut off casual fans, as well as some lifelong fans. Change is sometimes really hard to accept, but change never happens like this. Kanye literally went from someone who rapped about sexual experiences, drug use, drinking too much alcohol and making horrible decisions to a gospel singer who praises God and manages to not say one swear word or reference anything sinful like drugs or alcohol for an entire full length album.
I’m sorry to the casual Kanye fans, but once again, this is his new genre and his faith comes first – according to Kanye. So if gospel music isn’t your cup of tea, try someone else.
For us die-hard Kanye fans, just know that I also cringe in horror when Kanye says something controversial. We always tell each other in Kanye themed Facebook Groups things like “woah, they are going to cancel him, he just said slavery is a choice”. But then BAM! Another album comes out and talk of cancelling Kanye is ironically, cancelled. Cancelling someone 90% of the time makes sure that person is not able to continue the same level of fame and opportunities he or she once had. Therefore it must really suck to see a man say and do the things Kanye does and just walk it off and make another best-selling album. Kanye being undoubtedly one of the most hated artists on the planet makes sense. Although, he is also somehow the most loved and respected artist on the planet… which is super confusing.