This feels like it happened so long ago, but it was just in May of this year when Kanye West decided to promote his new music by coming out as a Trump-supporting, MAGA-hat-wearing narcissist and fool. I canceled Kanye back then, after I defended his dumbass for years. I honestly thought he was a misunderstood genius, a smart guy with mental health issues. But no. He’s profoundly stupid, and he and Trump can vibe on their “dragon energy” in Siberia for all I care.
During that phase, Kanye also said this dumb sh-t during an interview with TMZ Live: “People try to minimize me to an artist, hip-hop, black community. Yea I represent all of those things But I also represent the world. When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400?! That sounds like a choice. We’re mentally in prison.” Thus, everybody canceled ‘Ye for saying slavery is a choice. Even Stevie Wonder canceled him and called him ignorant, so that’s how you know it was bad. Anyway, Kanye has a new interview with the NY Times where he explains or defends (or refuses to defend) his comments about slavery, Trump and MAGA-ing. Some quotes:
Whether he really said that slavery was a choice: “I said the idea of sitting in something for 400 years sounds — sounds — like a choice to me, I never said it’s a choice. I never said slavery itself — like being shackled in chains — was a choice. That’s why I went from slave to 400 years to mental prison to this and that. If you look at the clip you see the way my mind works.”
When asked if he regrets what he said about slavery: “I wouldn’t frame a one-liner or a headline. What I would say is actually it’s literally like I feel like I’m in court having to justify a robbery that I didn’t actually commit, where I’m having to somehow reframe something that I never said. I feel stupid to have to say out loud that I know that being put on the boat was — but also I’m not backing down, bro. What I will do is I’ll take responsibility for the fact that I allowed my voice to be used back to back in ways that were not protective of it when my voice means too much.
He worried that Kim would leave him: “There was a moment where I felt like after TMZ, maybe a week after that, I felt like the energy levels were low, and I called different family members and was asking, you know, ‘Was Kim thinking about leaving me after TMZ?’ So that was a real conversation.”
He’s open about his Trump support because…? “I felt that I knew people who voted for Trump that were celebrities that were scared to say that they liked him. But they told me, and I liked him, and I’m not scared to say what I like. Let me come over here and get in this fight with you.”
He says felt pressure to vote for Hillary Clinton because he’s black: “Man, I had my [expletive] [expletive] castrated: ‘You have to like Hillary.’ That’s got to be your choice … And I’m like, that’s not who I want to marry. I don’t feel that.”
Artists should be allowed to operate like children, simply reactionary. “Having a political opinion that’s overly informed, it’s like knowing how to dress, as opposed to being a child — ‘I like this.’ We need to be able to be in situations where you can be irresponsible. That’s one of the great privileges of an artist. An artist should be irresponsible in a way — a 3-year-old.”
He was suicidal at one point in 2016-17: “Oh yeah, I’ve thought about killing myself all the time. It’s always a option and [expletive]. Like Louis C.K. said: I flip through the manual. I weigh all the options.”
He doesn’t believe in cancel-culture: “Half that audience that was there last night, half the people that are listening to the album are supposed to not listen to the album right now. I’m canceled. I’m canceled because I didn’t cancel Trump.” He adds that he’ll never lose support of black people: “Like I said, wouldn’t leave. Like yes, got a bunch of different opinions. You’re not always going to agree, but they’re not going to leave.”
He didn’t want to “marry” Hillary Clinton but he did want to “marry” Trump. And he supported Trump because he felt like there were so many celebrities out there who were hiding away their Trump-support and he wanted to be the musical vanguard of deplorable politics. I agree, he’s like a 3-year-old – ignorant, uneducated, tantrum-prone, lacking in critical thinking, lacking in history. “I’m canceled because I didn’t cancel Trump.” That’s exactly right, dumbass.
3 days in Wyoming with Kanyehttps://t.co/q1mBJTs0YD
— Jon Caramanica (@joncaramanica) June 25, 2018
my MAGA hat is signed 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/DrDHJybS8V
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
I’ll read your take on it, but I’m not wasting my time on a Kanye West article.
Me either. He’s exhausting. I don’t know how anyone lives with that. I could care less about what he says at this point. He could open an animal rescue and would still be cancelled.
Haha no one lives with that 😅
That’s why it’s the ‘perfect marriage’ 🙄
+1
Go ahead, be a three year old; but don’t be surprised when the adults put you to bed. Night Night, Kanye.
He’s from my neighborhood…his Mama has helped…SO MANY PEOPLE that I personally know with her intellect and her kindness and her mentor-ship….her son however?
He consistently…breaks my heart….
Yes, me too, Lala. I have defended Kanye for years and have thought of him with real affection, as well as with admiration for his music — I have bought many of his albums. But Trump is the worst thing to happen to our democracy in my lifetime, and if Kanye can support him–so publicly!–after all the racist, fascist, sexist, xenophobic, greedhead bullshit he has spewed, then I’m through.
Believe me…when I tell you that THIS…has ALWAYS been Kanye…however, in the past…he was surrounded by folks who kept him from destructive paths (mentally/emotionally)…since he’s aligned himself with Khardashian’s…that support system is no longer there…and there’s no one to pull him aside and tell him…”Dude, CHILL…let’s go play some hoops or kick it someplace…let’s make a Harold’s run or sumthin”…so much of Kanye’s good stuff came from his environment and the people around him…
That’s no longer there…and all you have now is Kanye unfiltered…and unsupported…you NEVA want to deal with Kanye unsupported and unfiltered….
@ Laila. He’s had support. But west treats them like shit. Take John Legend for instance. And others. Nobody wants to buy into this crap anymore.
We need to be able to be in situations where you can be irresponsible. That’s one of the great privileges of an artist. An artist should be irresponsible in a way — a 3-year-old.”
NO. JUST NO.
When you’re an artist that is commanding the attention of millions, you don’t just get to be irresponsible and say shit like “That sounds like a choice” about slavery and then whine that you’re being misunderstood.
Kim isn’t going to leave him until he actively starts to cost her money and right now she’s found a way to turn a profit off his megalomaniac friendship with 45 – by playacting at being socially conscious. She doesn’t care that she’s humanizing a fascist because it is getting her attention. If Kimye and the whole grotesque family were cancelled forever, it would be lovely.
“I felt like the energy levels were low” hahahaha, you don’t say
I like him, always have, I can’t help it.
That line really got me too
You know you really hate, HATE someone when even their jagged, buzzsaw of a signature triggers you. I hate even looking at the Dotard’s signature. Every single thing about that man is wrong, oozes evil, and is jacked up.
Yeah, I was oddly repulsed by the sight of his signature also.
I can’t post the image here, but someone on twitter put dots in the jags and it looks for all the world like a klan rally. It is creepy (that probably won’t help your feelings about his signature, sorry)
I’d like to cancel him, his wife, and her whole family please.
This is about $$$$ , the album is not doing well and he not getting afree pass because of his mental issues. The MAGA stuff. Never Trump and never Kanye. Sorry this sh*tstirring, dumping on Black and brown has met my pocket books.
Always the victim.
He’s an idiot, it’s frustrating that he gets so much attention. And yes, I’m sure his wife will be divorcing him soon.
He’s not even remotely remorseful? I disagree with you that he’s cancelled. After spewing nonsense, he released an album and people gulped it. Shockingly, his album became no 1 on iTunes in over 80 countries in 2 days. So he hasn’t learned anything yet cos he’s money hasn’t been affected.
True but the second week was awful and the pure sales are very low for an artist as big as Kanye. So yeah, the money is affected, but he is not backpedaling here. I don’t think he even knows how to do that.
I wonder if the whole debacle is (partly) new management gone wrong.
Babs, really? I would love nothing more than to see that Kanye’s money is being affected. How many pure sales has he had? I guess Pusha T, Nas, Kid Cudi and Teyana’s album will also record low sales, or no?
I think some of the things he says are just absolutely ridiculous. I do agree with him on concept of people cancelling out others for a choice they make or what they believe. I have friends that have completely different views on life than I do. They believe and say things that blow my mind. I have never thought for a second though about not being friends with them. My love for them doesn’t change just because they voted for Trump.
I think we are too quick to dismiss people in our society. It’s easier to cancel someone out than actually learning to coexist with a person who thinks differently. Before this is twisted, I am not talking about the truly awful who get off on hurting others or only think of themselves. I just think we should cut each other a little slack.
May I ask if you are poc or Caucasian, straight or gay? I ask because I think it feels different for people who are directly affected by racist, xenophobic or homophobic policies. It’s more difficult to ignore what feels like a betrayal.
I am a first generation American citizen. My parents came here from Cuba in the 80’s with just the clothes on their back. Thirty years later, they still don’t have much more. I have seen racism. I know how awful it feels. It still doesn’t justify more hate.
@Brooke: “I am not talking about the truly awful who get off on hurting others or only think of themselves.”
Unfortunately, those are the only two types of person an unapologetic Trump Supporter can be at this point though. Either they actively like the things that are already being done to people under Trump/Pence and that’s why Trump got their support in the first place (Let’s be real: It’s also why he’ll get their votes again), or they really don’t care- kind of like their first lady.
Individuals don’t HAVE TO cancel the deplorables in their lives if they really don’t want to- it’s a personal choice. But those same individuals also don’t get to police how other people feel or shame others for how they choose to deal with deplorables either. Racist, homophobic, or misogynistic conservatives are not owed anyone’s continued love, friendship, or support, whether their actions come from hatred or apathy. Nobody is obligated to respect them. Anybody is justified in hating them- people have every fucking right to hate them- as long as they do not violently act on that hatred.
What do you mean justify hate? It isn’t black and brown people hating on trump, poc weren’t concerned with him before he started targeting POC. It’s his movement, his rhetoric that is hateful. It’s his administration that put children in cages and make POC feel targeted. People who support him are supporting a hateful rethoric. It’s your choice not to confront them on that but don’t tell people who choose to do so THEY are the haters. That’s really twisting things and it reminds me of trump supporters one who was on my Insta saying my politics are negative and hateful because I called out the administration for putting child immigrants in cages…
@Brooke I get where you’re coming from; I also don’t like canceling culture, but when someone has a completely different perspective on core moral values it can be really difficult to find common ground and communicate. Sometimes it’s simply not possible to continue that relationship, unless you’re in a position where you can be confident that their votes will not affect your standard of living.
Most people don’t support sexism, racism, and other forms of discrimination, but Trump supporters and liberals have very different ideas of what constitutes as discriminatory and what the power dynamic in this nation looks like. I don’t love the people in my life that are sympathetic to Trump less, but I can’t have the same meaningful relationship when communication between us only goes so far, and I have to constantly wonder what consequences their votes will have on my life as a minority. There’s a point where we can’t engage anymore.
I agree with the gist of the “don’t be too hasty to cut off communication” idea, but I don’t think Trump supporters are the best example for several communities of people in this country.
@Pia 100% agree 🙁
I totally agree with your comment, every last word. I have a very close family member who voted for this dotard and I will never understand how someone could be so tone deaf. I try to avoid talking to her about 45. I honestly believe because of her one voting must have abortion, that he says he’s against abortion, imo, she has lost her mind. I’m betting my last dollar he has had someone aborted a child for him. She believes everything coming out of his lying mouth and believes everyone is lying on him.
I’m at the stage I do not listen to him on tv, I refused to be lied to anymore from him, his family and the people who supports him. They are all evil. Btw, I voted in my area this morning, it was local, but I got my ass to the polling station and cast my vote, in New York.
I wish I could keep an open mind, but I cannot knowingly associate with people who support Trump. So they are canceled and deleted.
Yup. Cancel. Delete. Life’s too short, the world is too full of pain. Why would I want to surround myself will hate and ignorance? There’s work to be done, and when I’m not working I want to feel good.
I dunno why it took people so many years to see in Kanye what I saw: a man with delusions of grandeur/narcissistic personality clearly suffering from mental health issues who put out a few good hits but was by no means some kind of wordsmith genius. His interviews show the way his scatterbrained mind works, he jumps from topic to topic with no clear line of thought and misstates what he’s trying to say all the time. I never believed he meant slavery was actually a choice but he is always trying to articulate things that are beyond his realm of comprehension and when he tries to muddle through it, it always backfires. He was never a misunderstood artist and his tantrums at not winning awards at music shows demonstrated to me just how petty he is and how much he needs validation.
I’ve always said he reminds me of my former friend who is bipolar (minus the long incoherent ramblings and from what I know she doesn’t support Trump). She also has this stunted emotional maturity that Kanye has and coupled with the ups and downs of the BPD, I had to sadly walk away. I tried to help for a long time but I just seemed to make things worse. It was always my fault, I always said or did something that was perceived as a slight and I would just get frustrated and mad and there was nothing I could do since I’m not a psychiatrist. So many examples I could provide but I feel like dealing with Kanye is the same way: you aren’t dealing with an adult, you are dealing with someone who has a middle school mentality. And it’s frustrating and sad because you want them to just “snap out of it and see the light” but that’s not the way things work with mental health (as I suffer from anxiety and depression so I know fully well just how hard it can be to overcome issues like this).
I thought that Kanye was trying to get to the heart of this quote:
“Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.
This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
~ Frederick Douglass
… which is ironically appropriately applied currently, as a response to the Trump regime which Kanye supports.
Thanks for posting this quote semilla besada. I have never read that before but it is so fitting.
Let’s not forget that Kanye West doesn’t have the courage of his convictions. He supports trump, sure, but actually getting up off his arse to vote for him? Neeeh. Where I live, you shut your trap if you didn’t bother casting your vote. Voting is compulsory here, but you’d be surprised at the number of people who deliberately do not vote and willingly just pay the fine, or who roll up to have their names crossed off the register (thus avoiding the fine), and simply deface the ballot paper – a completely wasted vote. They usually freely and proudly admit to this, but for 3-4 years continually whine about the elected government. Didn’t vote? Then shut it.
I’m going to assume the compulsory voting thing is outside of the US if that’s where you’re from? As far as I know voting has never been compulsory anywhere in the US that I’m aware of
Duh. Of course they live outside the U.S.
He’s just like his president.
He said what he said, and I for one, will not forget it. Imbecile.
I love that he doesn’t ask Kim about their marriage … just calls round various people. He’s an idiot.
Boring narcissist.
Um…Kanye. Maybe in your “genius” head you THINK you said that it was mental slavery, but you did not. God he’s like Roseanne, just backtracking and spinning things to make it seem better. It’s not.
Canceled. I Don’t even care what he has to say any longer.
i always said … kanye is either gonna end up being sublime when he gets older or kill himself due to a massive cancellation and backlash and Kim leaving him…
this could still happen…he lives for drama and when he doesnt have it (KIM embodying that) he wont see a point to life anymore….