The Desolation of Ye
Ye (née Kanye West) is not crazy.
I'll say it again. Ye is not crazy. We, the general public, need to stop misconstruing his actions as those of a person losing control, and start calling it what it is: a calculated press magnet designed to increase profits.
Throughout his career, Kanye has had an incredible impact on hip-hop culture. He has had an unmistakable production style, a unique fashion sense, and business savvy that has transformed him into the richest rapper in the world. To simply label his antics as "mental health gone wrong" is condescending, reductive, and a little childish. It feeds into a narrative that also seeks to destroy any good work he may have done in the past by marrying it to a pattern of behavior that should be dismissed, when instead it should be analyzed.
Producer, extraordinaire?
When Ye first hit the scene, he was a little known producer with a unique sound that was suddenly in demand by titans in the rap game. He crossed paths with Pharrell, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, The Roots, and others before settling into his sibling relationship with Jay-Z. His blend of pitched up, classic soul samples on top of a rotating library of smooth, heavy, and aggressive hip-hop drums was a joy to experience (I have been searching for an instrumental version of Talib Kweli's In The Mood for fifteen years). This style has definitely changed over the years, but Ye has had a hand in a large percentage of the instant classics from 2000 to today.
Ye, as Kanye West, had an initial 3-album salvo, 2004's The College Dropout, 2005's Late Registration, and 2007's Graduation, that can arguably be considered one of the greatest three album hip-hop debuts of all time (easily top three in my book). Ye's production was juxtaposed with introspective rhymes, conscious rap, and comedy to influence many artists who came after him. From 808's & Heartbreak in 2008 to The Life of Pablo in 2016, Ye experimented with different approaches to his sound with varying degrees of success. The last few haven't been chart toppers, but it can be argued that Ye, at this point, has set his sights on other ventures.
Littered throughout this illustrious career are events as egregious as the 2009 VMAs, and as perplexing as 2018's Lift Yourself "Scoop de Whoop" fiasco. No matter what you may say about these, they dominated their respective news cycles for weeks after they occurred. Until now, "Imma let you finish" is a punch line thrown into comedy skits and monologues alike. His cover for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy sparked wonder and outrage. Ye getting dressed down by a TMZ host over his scintillating, yet juvenile breakdown of slavery in America became a viral moment. The running theme for all of these events has been a discussion on whether he's doing all of this on purpose.
I would contend that he is. I believe that Ye crafts these moments with one rule at the forefront. We can find this rule in the Will Ferrell Blades of Glory sample from 2011's N*ggas in Paris: "No one knows what it means, but it's provocative."
The Short Section
This blog is not TMZ. For that reason, this story will not have any focus on the “Kimye” saga, the Pete Davidson text messages, or anything surrounding those events other than to acknowledge that they exist, they happened, and should at least be mentioned in this analysis.
It’s possible that these events stemmed from some mental health issues on all sides. It’s possible that love, under stressful situations, makes people do weird things. Either way, this whole debacle is tragic, and should probably be left to professionals.
The MAGA Hat
Ask anyone at which point they believe Ye "lost the plot" and you'll get many wildly varying responses. I would argue that the highest bar on that graph belongs to his photo op with Donald Trump at Trump Tower in 2016. He followed this by shooting out a tweet wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat in 2018. This proved to be polarizing enough to split his fanbase. It sparked outrage. It provoked skepticism. It prompted conversation. And it sold sneakers.
Ye didn’t squander this new found attention. He took the opportunity and turned it into an odd policy discussion that also touched on some important topics. Kim Kardashian lobbied for prison reform. Ye himself waxed poetic about the crime rates in Chicago. You can decide for yourself if this has been effective in bearing fruit.
Alt-Right Fashion
The Ye talking points have slowly evolved, his personal Overton window seemingly sliding toward the alt-right. In reality, it has stayed comfortably in the realm of the provocative. Consider these in order, as follows:
October 3, 2022 - Ye joins Candace Owens in Paris, the pair donning matching “White Lives Matter” T-shirts. My favorite response? Yasiin Bey’s edited shirts.
October 7, 2022 - Fox News airs Tucker Carlson’s Ye interview, which dabbled in anti-semitic dog whistles. Vice News would later obtain unaired segments that removed the dog whistles and stated the quiet parts out loud.
October 8, 2022 - Ye tweets some nonsense about going “death con 3.” More anti-semitism. Instant lockout on his Twitter account.
October 15, 2022 - Drink Champs, N.O.R.E’s podcast with DJ EFN, sits down with Ye, who provides some additional anti-semitism and a long debunked George Floyd theory. The Floyd family is suing for $250 million.
October 17, 2022 - Ye announces his intent to purchase Parler, a right-wing social media platform. It is worth noting that Parler CEO George Farmer is married to Candace Owens. Does this mean anything? Is this “free speech” purchase in any way connected via a profit motive to the string of inflammatory outbursts that preceded it? Nobody can say for sure, but it’s fun to point out.
October 18, 2022 - Ye vs. Michael Rapaport. This one doesn’t really matter to the story. It’s just entertaining. Look it up for yourself.
Putting it all Together
Ye has what we in the biz call “F*ck you money.” De-platforming is not going to affect him. Fracturing his fan base just makes room for fans from another venue. Ye is at a point in his career where his mentions make money. He was able to launch a clothing line in garbage cans at the Gap, for chrissakes. The truth is that as long as he keeps his name in the news, he will remain successful.
And this strategy is much more efficient than producing hip-hop gems. Believe it or not, it takes a lot of work to create a beat, match it to an artist, record the song, mix the track, master it, and then market it to the masses. It’s much easier to profit from being a provocateur. Ye would make much more money per hour posing with a swastika than he ever could shopping beats and writing rhymes. Any “crazy” statement or action of his will be embraced by some faction of the political landscape, and they will flock to buy whatever he is selling.
At this point, there is only one demographic that I feel won’t take Ye back…
