Kanye West, who once described himself as like a tree that feeds the branches of the people, has now let “the people” down with news that the Kanye West Foundation, which was founded by his mother and aimed to reduce high-school drop out percentages, has abruptly shuttered its doors. There’s no word yet from Kanye on why the charity has closed, which is strange, to say the very least, since Kanye generally speaks to “the people” and lets them know everything (and then some) about what he’s thinking and feeling. After all, he blamed his notorious interruption of Taylor Swift’s award acceptance speech for the fact that he had to let go some of his clothing company employees:

With the help of strong will, a lack of empathy, a li’l alcohol, and extremely distasteful and bad timing, I became George Bush over night. How deep is the scar? I bled hard. Cancelled [a] tour with the number one pop star in the world. Closed the doors of my clothing office. Had to let employees go.

Interestingly enough after that little rant, Kanye soon found the money to replace his bottom teeth with diamonds. This leads me to wonder what major purchase he might be planning after cutting the Kanye West Foundation out of his life too:

The charity named for the rapper Kanye West that was intended to reduce high school dropout rates has closed mysteriously.

Its former executive director, Joseph Collins, sent an e-mail to associates last month, telling them that he was looking for a job because the charity, the Kanye West Foundation, had closed, and its phone has been disconnected.

“I am reaching out to let you know that the Kanye West Foundation (kanyewestfoundation.org) has officially closed it doors after a successful 4+ years of programming and events,” Mr. Collins wrote in the e-mail, which was given to The New York Times by executives from two nonprofit groups that had worked with the organization. “It has been an incredible experience working with Kanye and the board to realize his mother’s vision and I am honored to have been given the opportunity to lead the Foundation.”

Reached by phone, Mr. Collins declined to comment. “You’d have to get in touch with Mr. West,” he said.

Efforts to reach Mr. West failed, however. Mr. West’s agency, WME Entertainment, referred calls about the closing of the charity to the performer’s publicist, Gabriel Tesoriero, but Mr. Tesoriero did not respond to e-mail sent to the address the agency provided.

Nor did a representative for Universal Music, where Mr. Tesoriero works, return a call.

Michelynn Woodard, listed as the organization’s chairwoman, did not respond to e-mails or phone messages.

The charity filed tax forms as if it were a private foundation, but it does not appear to have been financed by Mr. West, instead raising the bulk of its money from companies and individuals with whom Mr. West does business.

In 2009, for instance, Madison Square Garden gave it $151,754, and the retailer Karmaloop donated $20,000. The previous year, the charity received contributions from the concert promoters Live Nation Music Group and Goldenvoice.

The charity raised an average of $492,000 and made total grants averaging $18,080 in each of 2007, 2008 and 2009, the last year for which tax forms are available.

Grant-making slowed drastically — in 2009, the charity made just $563 in grants — after the death of Mr. West’s mother, Donda West, in 2007 from complications of plastic surgery. Dr. West was an English professor, according to the charity’s Web site, who founded the organization because she “was passionate about student success.”

[From NYTimes]

So what are we to make of this? Perhaps Kanye West is just a really busy man who found that he didn’t have the energy or interest to keep a foundation running after the death of his mother, but he certainly doesn’t have problems with investing inane amounts of time typing an endless stream of Twitter diarrhea as well as attending exclusive events such as Paris Fashion Week (as shown in the below paragraphs). Still, you’d think that Kanye would want to honor his mother’s memory by making sure that the charity had the wherewithal to continue running and helping disadvantaged young students to graduate high school. Instead, Kanye either made a conscious decision to let the foundation run itself into the ground or he just figured that if you set up a charity and throw a few fund-raising events, everythng will just turn out okay. And clearly, things haven’t turned out well here, but charities are immensely disposable where many celebrities are concerned. As long as they intend to do good and get those all-important photo ops, the rest just doesn’t matter, right, Madonna?

Photos of Kanye West pouting at Paris Fashion Week and performing at last weekend’s Coachella festival courtesy of WENN