Kanye West's Distorted Reality
Kanye West appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live three nights ago, only adding more fire to the already burning flames. What must be asked is how does a man who experienced the black struggle himself, whose father was a Black Panther, and whose mother was an educated professor, speak with negligence of this very struggle?
The answers lie in the egocentric world that Kanye has created for himself -- a world in which he is unaware of reality and immune to consequence. One can only understand this world if they are familiar with his transformation as an artist and an individual, as this transformation has formed this distorted reality.
Kanye began his journey as a precocious beatmaker who was soon employed by Jay Z. West’s beats were appreciated for his originality, a harbinger of the creativity he would later become known for. Despite the fact that he developed into a prolific producer, he was repeatedly denied an opportunity at rapping. Defying these rejections, he channeled his production skill into a series of highly-acclaimed hip-hop albums that featured compelling lyrics over expertly-crafted beats.
But as West reached superstar status, he abruptly lost his mother to a heart attack after a cosmetic procedure. Donda’s death seems to have been the turning point for Kanye, as it was the loss of Donda that appears to have led West into a perpetual downward spiral. Kanye was her only child, and she served as his manager and biggest supporter. It was Donda who raised Kanye as a single mother. It was she who supported Kanye’s aspirations when he first wanted to delve into music as a child, even paying $25 to rent out a music studio for Kanye to record in when he was 13 years old. And it was Donda who backed him when he dropped out of college to pursue a music career. Losing the person he was closest to has haunted him ever since, and it seemingly sparked a troubling transformation.
West’s identity as an artist and as an individual has changed since his mother’s death. His approach to music and fashion has become radical and self-glorified. The New York Times described West’s fashion shows as being “marked, largely, by bombast, pretentiousness and overwhelming self-seriousness,” while his rap and production have evolved into brasher, unrelenting sounds that hint at a creative mind that has lost its bearings in an esoteric realm. West has also struggled in the public spotlight: he notoriously interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV VMAs, he’s gotten into a number of hostile confrontations with paparazzi, he’s launched into Twitter tirades on innumerable occasions, he was hospitalized following a mental breakdown, and more recently, he voiced support for President Trump while calling slavery a "choice." Moreover, his own self-acclaim has become impossible to miss. West has called himself “Shakespeare in the flesh” and the “most impactful artist of our generation.” He’s equated himself to Warhol and Jobs and has dubbed himself as the modern Picasso and Michelangelo.
West has transformed from an ambitious breakout star into a spiraling, confused, boastful egomaniac detached from reality (remind you of anyone?). Donda’s death led to a loss of sanity, unhinging him. With his transformation, West has created a hypothetical universe in which he finds solace -- a fantasy-world built around madman projects and statements that he mistakes for profound philosophical doctrines. This dreamscape is fueled by a denial of the reality that surrounds him: his mother’s death, the challenges faced by African Americans, and his personal struggle to gain acceptance into the higher echelons of fashion and society. His constant state of denial has translated into a state of delusion that he mistakes for a revolutionary disruption to the status quo. While he thinks that his comments and tweets are progressive, they actually manifest as an outflow of asinine remarks that are ultimately damaging to the people whom he used to give voice to.
On Kimmel’s show, we saw that same insanity. West’s previous comments about African Americans and Trump were inevitably discussed, and when questioned about his support for Trump, West -- as he has done in the past -- accredited his advocacy to Trump’s radical antics. Not only does West appreciate Trump’s disruptiveness, he finds supporting him to be a personal defiance of fear.
Ridiculous comments like these continued when he questioned public attacks on the president, asking, “Why not try love?” He proposed that “thinking of everyone as our family” will “defuse this nuclear bomb of hate.” It sounded promising, but Kimmel was quick to point out the nonsensical nature of his proposition because there are families “literally being torn apart at the border as a result of what this president is doing.” Kimmel went on to point out that Kanye infamously stated, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” so what makes him think that Trump does? The camera then cut to Kanye, who was rendered speechless. For the next 5 or 6 seconds, Kimmel waited for an answer, but Kanye’s face was blank. Ultimately, Kanye simply laughed when Kimmel announced the commercial break, and when the feed resumed, the topic had been switched. West later insisted that he was not "stumped" in a series of tweets, but he still did not provide an answer to the question.
This 5 second sequence perfectly sums up post-Donda Kanye West: when confronted with reality and its consequences, West turns away to protect his own image. Despite the fact that Kanye called pride one of the “seven deadly sins” during the interview, he is undeniably motivated by pride. (Here, pride is a synonym for arrogance). This arrogance has consumed Kanye and has crippled the once-inspiring creative genius. His self-importance has allowed him to build a highground from which he can hide from the minority struggle and make comments that insult it.
If he was motivated by love, as his philosophical alter-ego insists that he is, then how could he possibly support an administration that is founded in hate? Hate abounds in the Trump Administration, from racist policies to officials -- including Trump -- who have a history of discriminating. Nothing portrays Kanye’s detachment better than his apathy to the incessant stream of verbal attacks against minorities and the compromising laws that are being supported by Republicans. The pre-Donda’s-death Kanye -- the man who fought for civil rights and brought attention to issues in the black community -- was motivated by love for his people. Ever since he lost the person he loved most, it seems that love has escaped him. This perhaps explains his reversion to egotism and thus the cascade of insanity that has followed.
West recently tweeted that he is finally “becoming his parent’s child,” the child that his mom and dad wanted him to become. Kanye bases this notion in the fact that he is finally exercising “free thought,” but what would Donda West think of the damage that Kanye's free thought is doing to the black community? Would she support him? Or would she chastise him for his compliance with racism and his ignorance of African American struggles? Contextualizing the disturbing nature of Kanye’s comments through Donda might be the only way to understand his metamorphosis.
