Kanye West has had a mind-boggling amount of scandals throughout his career. From interrupting Taylor Swift at the VMAs to running for president, Kanye gains an outpour of publicity with each new scandal.
This led some to ask: what if Kanye West’s persona is all an act? Is Kanye manufacturing his unpredictable personality to boost his longevity? Is Kanye’s public persona performance art?
The first “Kanye” moment was in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when Kanye said “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people,” on live TV. This comment was the inception of Kanye as a chaotic public villain. Later, Bush would call this the one of the most disgusting moments of his presidency.
Another one of his most famous controversies took place at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, where he interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech. This gained major traction on Twitter, and even prompted President Barack Obama to call him a “jackass.” For anyone keeping score, that’s two insults from Kanye. Kanye’s lyrics around this time had little to do with his public persona.
Kanye largely retreated from the public eye after the VMAs until the release of his magnum opus “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.” Major themes of the album surround his growing negative reputation. The album explores what it means to be a celebrity, as well as his specific psychological cocktail of self-hatred and narcissism. Kanye synthesized his manic personality with his music, making his legend a part of the art.
The record received loads of critical acclaim, with it making many “best of the decade” lists. Kanye’s wacky persona provided many with an unusual and unique reason to pay attention to Kanye’s music. This move, according to some Kanye historians, is the transition from “Old Kanye” to “New Kanye.”
From this point forward, Kanye acting so “Kanye” becomes an essential part of his music. On his following solo album “Yeezus,” he released the track “I Am a God.” That speaks for itself.
“The Life of Pablo” rollout surrounded assertions of Bill Cosby’s innocence, numerous album name and tracklist changes, a claim that Kanye was $53 million in debt and a cry for Mark Zuckerberg to invest $1 billion into his ideas. The biggest controversy from this period is the release of the track “Famous.” In the track, Kanye asserts that he made Taylor Swift famous from his 2009 VMAs controversy. This album’s rollout featured more controversy than most artists experience in their entire career. Kanye put himself back in the spotlight through his ability to get people talking.
The next “Kanye” move took place in April 2018, when he released the track “Lift Yourself,” infamous for lyrics such as “poopy-di scoop.” The following month, Kanye received scrutiny for claiming that slavery is a choice, as well as for his support for former-president Donald Trump. Following these controversies, five albums with Kanye’s mark, called the “Wyoming sessions,” dropped over the course of five weeks. For some albums he is a lead vocalist and for others he is just the producer. Regardless, these sessions make this the most prolific period of his career.
Kanye’s following solo album, “Jesus Is King,” had a tumultuous rollout just like “The Life of Pablo.” For months before its release, hype accumulated for a different album he claimed would release titled “Yandhi.” Then, following a leak online of “Yandhi,” Kanye scrapped the project, pivoting to “Jesus Is King.” The release turned heads because of the absurdity of Kanye becoming a “born-again” Christian and making a gospel album.
In the following summer, Kanye made two announcements: his next album, “Donda,” would be coming soon, and he would be entering the 2020 presidential race. The week of his announcements yielded the second-most searches for his name on Google in the last five years, only being topped by the period of his “The Life of Pablo” rollout.
The time between the announcement and release of “Donda” was over a year. Kanye’s most recent record experienced multiple changed tracklists and listening events of different, incomplete versions. This created a weekly Twitter firestorm, with Kanye fans expecting the album to drop after each listening party, creating a period of a few weeks where Kanye maintained higher than average google searches.
The evidence has been presented. It certainly seems true that Kanye’s wild publicity stunts have contributed to his success. The real question is whether or not he knows what he is doing, and whether or not he could stop if he wanted. Regardless of whether he is or not, he himself would probably say yes. That would be so “Kanye”.
Edited by Shannon Worley | sworley@themaneater.com