On Kanye West, Part VIII
2016 was a year of crisis for Kanye West. The trauma soon changed his politics. About two weeks after leaving hospital, he met the then President-elect, Donald Trump. Together, they enjoyed a philosophical discussion. ‘Life. We discussed life,’ Trump said of their encounter. ‘He’s a good man.’1 Kanye later tweeted that they discussed the ‘multicultural issues’ that had long interested him—bullying, education, and violence in Chicago. Meeting Trump, of course, was a controversial choice in the eyes of Kanye’s liberal audience. Kanye maintained that ‘communication’ with Trump was essential for the ‘change’ America needed, though. Despite his claim he would have voted for Trump, he said Trump’s electoral success was ultimately in the name of anti-racism—Trump, Kanye felt, ‘inspired racists to reveal themselves.’2 Perhaps this is true; it certainly helped Kanye reveal his own racist, anti-Semitic hate. In any case, it didn’t seem like Kanye had fallen completely toward the political right, even though he had met with Trump. The world had no idea, though, what would come in the months and years to follow.
Kanye was uncharacteristically quiet in 2017. After his meeting with Trump, he retreated to his ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming—the ‘most economically imbalanced city in America,’ as Pitchfork noted in their review of Ye—where he recorded five albums, went for long walks in the forest, and tried to recover from his mental health issues.3 It is unclear exactly what happened during these convalescent months. But in April 2018, weeks before he released the albums completed in his months of quiet, Kanye withdrew from his closet a red cap he had hidden for a year and a half—roughly since his hospitalisation in November 2016. He put it on his head, opened his phone and tweeted: ‘You don’t have to agree with trump but the mob can’t make me not love him. We are both dragon energy. He is my brother.’4 Trump replied: ‘Thank you Kanye, very cool!’
Kanye now unapologetically professed his love for Trump. In a song released days later, ‘Ye vs. the People,’ Kanye explained his new political position. Railing against Democrat racism and disunity, he rapped: ‘Ain’t goin’ against the grain everything I fought for?’ Rebuked by T.I. for defending white supremacy, Kanye replied with a reference to Jordan Peele’s Get Out: ‘I was in the sunken place and then I found the new me.’ By the song’s end, T.I. remains unconvinced; Kanye has maintained his resolve. All that is clear is that a blend of political frustration, a sense of righteous victimhood, reactionary tendencies and perhaps depression pressed Kanye towards the right. Other dark urges may have played a role too. On Ye’s ‘I Thought About Killing You,’ released several weeks later, he raps: ‘Today, I seriously thought about killing you. I contemplated, premeditated murder. And I think about killing myself. And I love myself way more than I love you, so…’ Narcissism and suicidality, it seems, were twined together in Kanye’s psyche as he fell toward the right.
After Ye, and with Trump’s blessing, Kanye became the American alt-right’s newest demagogue. This self-proclaimed ‘nucleus’ of contemporary culture now praised Candace Owens, who was invited to the listening party for Ye. Infowars’ Alex Jones applauded Kanye and invited him on to his show, an invitation Kanye would accept with disastrous results in late 2022. In a May 2018 TMZ interview, Kanye insisted that ‘400 years of slavery sounds like a choice.’ A few months after, he called on Twitter for the abolition of the 13th Amendment. Later, speaking to Trump at the White House, Kanye said Trump gave him the heart to succeed in fashion—he helped produce the ‘Yeezy Effect’—while his infamous critique of George W. Bush after Hurricane Katrina reflected his Democrat-induced ‘welfare mentality.’ Travelling to Uganda, Kanye also gave the country’s autocratic, homophobic dictator, Yoweri Museveni, a pair of Yeezy sneakers.5 There was an explosion of alt-right bullshit, in short. No matter the ire he attracted, though, Kanye’s change seemed complete. He had abandoned liberal politics for the reactionary right and had no desire to return.
Endnotes
The full tweet: ‘You don’t have to agree with trump but the mob can’t make me not love him. We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don’t agree with everything anyone does. That’s what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.’