I Miss The Old Kanye

For my sweet 16, I asked for the DJ to play Gold Digger. When I pledged my sorority, the song the my pledge sisters and I chanted to commiserate with each other was Heartless. There hasn’t been an album I didn’t like or a feature I didn’t know almost all of the words to since I was 15 years old. I am turing 29 this year to put that all into perspective. I am was a Kanye West fan.

It was hard to decide if that was past tense. For some people, they deleted him from their playlists and called it a day immediately. Quite frankly, that is not easy for me. I wish it were.  God knows being a ride or die Kanye fan has had its troubles ever since he interrupted Taylor Swift.

I have long chalked up his inflated ego to the fact that he is just so talented musically that he does not know how to act. I separated the music from the artist. For years that worked for me. No matter what controversy surrounded him, he put out great music. I could always count on him for that.

Fast forward to the last couple of weeks. He openly supported Trump. Yes, Kanye West supported a man who is openly racist, sexist, xenophobic, and transphobic just to name a few. Yes, Kanye who has a large minority following decided this was the man he wanted to stand behind. Going as far to wear a MAGA hat in one of his tweets.

To add insult to injury, he claimed that 400 years of slavery in America was a choice. Now, my ancestors were not slaves here, but they were slaves somewhere. The notion that any slave would have chosen that life is absolutely absurd. It’s hurtful, offensive, and makes a mockery of the freedom those before us fought for.

So, can I really separate the music from the artist now? Can I bop along to his songs while he continues to spew abhorrent nonsense? The answer is no. No, I can’t. As hard as it is to say, unless I see some major genuine repentance on his part I can no longer support or listen to Kanye West. His behavior as of late has been disgraceful and he does not deserve to be rewarded for it.

I will end this by saying that it is very possible Kanye is going through something. I am not a medical professional and will not opine on someone’s mental health, but given his past history I will not leave that out as a possibility. Until I have further facts, I am sticking with my previous comments and taking his behavior at face value. Deplorable.