74. Kanye West, "The College Dropout"

 


Oh dear.  Just as we come to this album, Kanye has once again inserted himself into The Discourse in a most unpleasurable way, first by wearing a "White Lives Matter" t-shirt to Paris Fashion Week (accompanied by wingnut star Candace Owens), then by appearing on Tucker Carlson's White Nationalist Power Hour to express confusion about the whole thing.  There is a lot more stuff, some of it very bad.

Kanye has also been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and it's probably safe to say that some or most or all of his very unsettling behavior is attributable to that.  Erica Schwiegershausen wrote a great piece for the Cut about how West's mental illness affects him and our perceptions of him; I encourage you to read it.

I'm not sure what my point is here, beyond the fact that I feel sort of uncomfortable just talking about this album and pretending that there isn't all this frankly disturbing shit going on.

The last straw I guess was Saturday, when West posted a blatantly antisemitic screed that got him suspended or banned from Twitter, I don’t know which. It was loathsome and I have no interest in writing about his music which is too bad because this album is great. I wish I could separate the art from the artist but right now, no way. 

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