Kanye West. Chances are when you hear that name you think of him pulling the microphone from Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs. That moment has remained iconic in our minds forever as do most of the shenanigans that Kanye gets up to. Most recently, on his last night of his 2016 Saint Pablo tour in Los Angeles, he stopped singing and ended the concert in the middle of a song! Not cool Kanye. I mean one of his most famous quotes is “My greatest pain in life is that I’ll never see myself perform live.”, but LA didn’t get to see the whole show!
But these ridiculous acts have contributed to the success of Kanye. He is taking over pop culture and absolutely killing the game. His Saint Pablo tour sold out in Madison Square Garden two nights in a row. Fans swelled up in the pit screaming along to lyrics from The Life of Pablo album. He was on a platform above all like, well, Jesus (or maybe Yeezus).
Kanye paints himself in a pretty selfish light, but all he really wants is equality and peace for humanity. In an interview for TIME in 2015 he says, “’All these walls that keep us from loving each other as one family or one race–racism, religion, where we grew up, whatever, class, socioeconomic–what makes us be so selfish and prideful, what keeps us from wanting to help the next man, what makes us be so focused on a personal legacy as opposed to the entire legacy of a race,’ West says. “The dinosaurs aren’t remembered for much more than their bones. When humanity’s gone, what do we give to this little planet that we’re on, and what could we do collectively, removing the pride?’”
He talks about moving toward more inclusivity and for fighting for each other and loving each other despite out differences. Even though he can be pretty overwhelming, all he really wants is to promote positivity in the world. He speaks the truth, very brutally sometimes, but the world needs it. He is a master of shocking the world and making national news. But he has hope for the future- which is what we all need sometimes.