Kanye West, who often goes by ‘Ye’, is undoubtedly one of the most impactful artists of his generation. His music has reached billions of streams, he’s gained 21 grammy wins, and even currently has over 67 million monthly listeners. Kanye is undoubtedly an incredibly talented artist. However, he is also one of the most controversial.
Nobody can forget the MTV VMAs Taylor x Kanye moment, when Kanye infamously interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video, claiming that Beyoncé should have won. For years, has said racist, sexist, anti-semitic, and deeply insensitive and cruel statements in interviews or on social media.
However, his recent thread of tweets and actions from the past few weeks have sparked the latest conversations on “Is Kanye Finally Canceled.” His recent tweets have claimed that he is a Nazi and Hitler-supporter, defending Sean “Diddy” Combs, and more antisemetic and deeply problematic remarks. Shortly after posting these tweets, Kanye released white tee shirts featuring swastikas on his clothing site, Yeezy. He had since been banned but now has returned to X.
Given these recent developments, I have seen countless videos about West’s videos with photos of the tweets saying, “but he made graduation,” in reference to his incredibly famous album. Many others joke about Kanye waking up and seeing what “Ye” posted and freaking out, inferring that his persona now is not a reflection of his true or past self.
The ultimate question: When do we draw the line from separating the artist from the art?
There is no doubt that Kanye West is mentally unstable, diagnosed with bipolar disorder. This certainly contributes to his actions, and he often says radical things and then takes them back later (only to say them again). But he is a public figure, abusing his position of power to spread false, dangerous information to radicalize some of human history. That fact cannot be ignored or denied.
Kanye can be an incredibly talented musical artist that brings millions of people joy, and also a deeply problematic individual that imposes very harmful views using his platform that brings millions of people pain. The two things can exist at the same, but one is not true without the other. This is especially considering his incredible influence in music and his influence in sharing his beliefs to millions of superfans.
Not being able to listen to music you love just because the person behind it is bad, is a really hard and difficult thing to want to do. Thinking that individually choosing not to listen to his music won’t change his behavior is a rational perspective; specially if you love his music and have been impacted by it in a profound way. However, the most important thing is that you actively recognize who the man is behind the music that you listen to. You can support music that you think sounds good, and not the person behind it.
Personally, I won’t be listening to Kanye because I don’t want to fund his behavior, nor do I think it’s funny to joke about whether or not we can support him, because we can’t. He as a person is certainly not still “valid” because of the music he has made. However, art is art, and his music is great and for the public and thus will continue to be consumed.
Kanye has become a more troubled and harmful person in more recent years, and we can only hope that he stops the spread of his deeply backward and harmful perspectives.