We are to blame for Kanye West; the Mr. West that you think of today when you hear his name anyway. Kanye Omari West was born in Atlanta and raised by a single mother in Chicago. Kanye’s natural talent was recognized early on, and whether his early recognition birthed his narcissism or his narcissism birthed the art is debatable; either way both were evident from the beginning.
Until very recently there is nothing Kanye West has not excelled at besides keeping his mouth shut. Ye will be the first to tell you about both his talent and his mental illness; on his 2018 release “ye”, he quips, “See, that’s my third person. That’s my bipolar shit [..] that’s my superpower, ain’t no disability, I am a superhero! I am a superhero!” Kanye caught the eyes of all the most important people that make their livelihood selling things to people that they don’t need; he wore enough of their clothes and danced close enough to instep that his fault could be overlooked, because of the profit margin.
The endless attention fed the worst parts of Kanye and the moguls like irresponsible guardians shut his screaming mouth only by stuffing it full of sugar; he courted the queen of modern media before the entire world and was pronounced king in a swarmed ceremony in Florence. Kanye in 2019 admitted to Zane Lowe of Apple Music 1 the very significant blow he took loosing the potential of being artistic director at Louis Vuitton to Virgil Abloh, a confidant and colleague up to that point. In my opinion this is when began the descent. In the following year a trend developed and Kanye proceeded to cut ties with many of those collaborators and friends that had observably brought him the greatest joy. The train wreck was broadcast to eager viewers week after week, season after season. Corporations took a chance, they gambled on Kanye, and they lost. Adidas is all to quick to pat themselves on the back for all the the money they have lost in dropping Kanye, it’s significantly less then they would have lost if they had kept him.
The damage is done. Kanye’s most recent anti-semetic antics inspired fear and hate across our country; threats were made, schools were closed and already traumatized people were terrified further. When it became clear that there was no more blood to be wrung from Ye he was spit out just as quickly as he was initially gobbled up. We failed Kaye West and as happens when we fail those that we have invite into our homes, we failed ourselves.