Kanye "Sunken Place" West is yet again in the media cycle for another series of explosive comments. *eats a bite of cereal* It all started when...well, no one really knows when it started, to be honest. After almost a year away from social media, the blackest Kardashian returned to Twitter, sending out a rampage of tweets. His messages, cryptic and erratic (2024. I'm nobody's "client"), set off a Wakandan fire storm when he tweeted out support for Candace Owens and then the Cheeto-In-Chief, himself, Donald Trump.
There is a fine line between genius and insanity, and Mr. Kardashian has been walking along that piece of twine for a little while now. He goes from saying George Bush "doesn't like Black people" to expressing his feelings on racism "being an out-date concept"...and not in the context we would have hoped for.
I think Snoop said it best, "the evolution of Jay-Z and Kanye show you how influential your wife can be to your life." For some time now, the internet has been comparing Kanye to Daniel Kaluuya's character in Jordan Peele's documentary on contemporary Black life, Get Out. For those who haven't seen it, or those who are incredibly oblivious and really thought it was just a horror film...the re-occurring metaphor of the sunken place is the contra to being "WOKE." The sunken place is the perpetual place of dormancy, regarding systematic and idiosyncratic injustice and oppression in regards to race...A.K.A, The Kardashian-West compound, as well as other locations. And Kanye and his wife made it oh-so obvious that they hadn't seen the film when he tweeted out a pictures of his home, asking if it looked like the sunken place (it does, actually,) and she tweeted that Kanye was "actually out of the sunken place when he is being himself, " which directly translates to, "he had his senses before becoming a Kardashian and shoving his head up The Man's ass."
I mean, we all knew for sure that Kim Kardashian was a woman who went out of her way for Black dick and not Black people when she thought it appropriate to text during a Michael Brown moment of silence back in 2014, but I think we all thought since giving birth to Black babies, specifically a Black woman, that she might actually evolve into...never mind
But lets take a look at the devolution of Kanye Kardashian.
In February of 2004, Kanye released one of his most commercially successful albums, "The College Dropout." Kanye has stated that for years prior, every label he met with refused to sign him because he didn't produce the "gangsta persona" popular in the early 2000's (nor the background to fake it). Instead, his music was a stream of "woke" storytelling. "Fuck the police, that hows I treat 'em," was one of the most explosive lines in "All Falls Down," and in "Never Let Me Down," West raps about his grandfather taking his mother, then six-years-old, to an all white lunch counter and them subsequently being arrested. He also made references to police brutality and consumerism in the Black community.
"Late Registration" talked about Ronald Reagan and the crack epidemic, and called out the exploitation of Black communities. Later that year he called out then President George W. Bush for not doing enough to help the victims (mostly POC) of hurricane Katrina during a live telethon.
Then in 2011, West's joint album with Jay-Z, "Watch The Throne," reflected on racism as a whole, as well as sexism and Black consumerism.
Then something happened. Now, I don't want to place all the blame on his wife, but I'm sure she didn't help things much. Somehow she was able to convince Kanye, and only Kanye, that she was "down" with that deplorable excuse for a plate of soul food. At the very least, she could have not given him the burnt part of the sweet potatoes or called it a souffle. SMH.
But I digress. Yezzus then went on to say that racism didn't mean anything and insinuated that his wife was more influential than First Lady Michelle Obama, because Mrs. Obama didn't post naked photos in Instagram.
After attempting to lick Ben Carson's ass, Kanye made it clear the type of women he values most. The multiracial ones. In 2014, Mr. West released a casting call for his clothing line requesting "multiracial women only," meaning only mixed and light skinned women, and when dragged on social media, used the defense, "The 10,000 people that showed up didn’t have a problem with [the word 'multiracial']." In the same Vogue article he tried to backtrack staying that he the casting call was for "variations" of Black women, but was confused on how to request that. I believe simply asking for "Black women," would have done the trick as Black women already come in a variety of shades, but what do I know? I wasn't a college dropout.
His fashion show collaborations with artist Vanessa Beecroft also shed some light into West's state of mind. Beecroft herself attempted to adopt African orphans from the Sudan to use as subjects in her work and had to be physically taken down by a nun after attempting to strip naked African orphans for a photo. No, this really happened. She is also on record admitting that she doesn't like working with Black women...hmmm. And this Kanye's homegirl.
He then later told Black people to stop focusing on racism, because the world is racist and that just the way things go, and publicly admitted for the first time that if he would have voted, it would have been for Trump. Not because he didn't think that Black lives or women's lives mattered, but because Trump was the winner and you're cool when you vote for the people who win things.
After a two year hiatus, Yezzus lived. In April of 2018, he rose again in accordance to the scriptures. He appeared to witnesses before he ascended onto Twitter to sit at the right hand of Donald Trump.
Personally, I have never looked to Kanye West for thoughtful political analysis or philosophy. Whilst he may think he is some sort of second coming, the truth is, he is a man-baby suffering though a temper tantrum. He has endued the untimely death of his mother, and nearly lost the mother of his children in a burglary attempt all while under the scrutinizing spotlight. He has probably suffered enough pain for an entire lifetime, but his response is nothing more than a lashing out. He is not "all knowing." He is not a philosopher. He is not Jesus. He is a rich Black man who was probably ostracized by Black friends as a child, and in his adult life, feels he is owed something from the Black community. It takes a monumental amount of ignorance, self loathing and selfishness to stand there and say that 400 years of being stolen, beaten, raped, dismembered, and torn apart from your family was a damn choice.
This isn't about freedom of speech or creativity. This is about the fact that Kanye West has a platform and there is zero excuse for using that platform to piss on Black history. We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors.
Kanye is CANCELLED
We shine because they hate us, floss cause they degrade us
We trying to buy back our 40 acres
And for that paper, look how low we a'stoop
Even if you in a Benz, you still a nigga in a coupe - The Old Kanye West