Class is in session.
The professor is droning on about who-knows-what at this point, having already lectured for about 20 minutes about “taking advantage of her attendance policy” because only half the class has decided to show up. Bored, I find my fingers tapping on Facebook.
Anyway, the first article on my newsfeed reads something along the lines of, “Has Kanye West just thrown shade again?”
As much as I’m not a fan of the rapper, I find myself opening the article anyway, curious to see who he’s called out this time, or if he’s thrown another temper tantrum backstage.
Halfway through reading the article, I stop. Suddenly, I have just lost the need to care.
I find myself wondering why, of all things, is this news?
Why should I care if Kanye West, who calls himself Yeezus, thinks that he’ll still be famous in 20 years and if someone disagrees, goes off on a Twitter rant declaring them to be inconsequential? Why should it cross my mind that Kanye has, yet again, alienated another artist by using misogynist lyrics that no way in hell she would have ever agreed to? Why should the recording of his breakdown backstage, after half his set had to be taken down for aesthetic reasons on "SNL" (which, to be fair, if I was on "SNL" they could do whatever they wanted to me because, let’s be honest, it’s "SNL"), be posted as current news?
In all actuality, it’s not.
At the end of the day, Kanye West will always love himself more than anyone else. His whole purpose for surviving is stepping on the toes of others, just to make sure that his name is out there. If he has to crash some award show acceptance speeches, go on 10-minute rants that start with his daughter and somehow end with his announcement of presidential candidacy in 2020, then he’ll do it. I’m finding more and more that this isn’t who he really is; it’s a persona he puts out to make sure that everyone knows, and everyone is speaking about, Kanye West.
By the way, I’m hard-pressed not to agree with the critic who said he would not be relevant sooner rather than later. Someone who has to tell the entire room that they’re more influential than some of the most widely respected members of society is no person that will ever stay in the limelight.
I’m boycotting all Kanye West articles, appearances, anything. I don’t want to even know he exists. If I see his picture in the paper, I’ll turn the page. If I see his column in a gossip magazine, I’ll turn to the next starlet.
Because in the end, that’s the only way to stop an annoying, overdramatic, whiny attention-seeker. Once you stop paying attention to them, they simply vanish, all because they strived only on your ideas of how terrible they were.
Kanye, you can keep doing whatever you do. Come out with 10 thousand more albums if you wish, keep going on twitter rants, make sure your name is out there for as long as you want.
In the end, you’ll never become the most influential person of this generation.
20 years from now, when my kids wonder who sings that song on the throwback channel on the radio, I’ll shrug and say just another rapper.
