CONTROVERSIAL KANYE
Bluesfest signs provocative rapper
Kanye West has been one of the most controversial and polarizing musicians there is for several years now, and that divisive status is reflected in the public reaction to the announcement that he’ll play RBC Ottawa Bluesfest on July 10.
“Bluesfest now officially known as Douche-fest,” wrote a reader on the Big Beat Facebook page, who is not enamoured with West’s penchant for ludicrous statements — reportedly he once said, “I am the No. 1 human being in music,” and also, “My greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live.”
Some people are pained by the prospect of seeing West perform live. On Bluesfest’s Facebook page one person wrote, “Kanye West is the Indiana of music,” which is a puzzling reference, one presumes, to that state’s new and polarizing “religious freedom” law.
This antipathy to West isn’t unique to Bluesfest fans. The producer-turned-rapper-turnedtabloid-favourite will also play the Glastonbury festival in the U.K. this summer — Bluesfest is the only North American festival date he’s announced so far — and some Glastonbury fans have started an online petition to “Cancel Kanye West’s headline slot and get a rock band.”
Now there’s a “Stop Kanye at Ottawa Bluesfest” group on Facebook. “I know it won’t stop him from coming, but ... on the RBC Bluesfest Facebook page there are numerous comments of distaste and disappointment,” says Amy Adele Lamothe, who created the group. “Of course, people don’t have to go to the show if they don’t like it, but I bet it cost a pretty penny to have him come to Ottawa. It could have been put towards a better act.”
Aye, there’s the rub — “better act.” It’s a question of individual tastes, and for every Kanyephobe on Facebook or Twitter there’s a Kanye-phile. “Kanye West is the most innovative musician on the planet. You would be lucky to have him at Bluesfest,” wrote one reader on Facebook. Another wrote, “Kanye is a living legend. ... I recognize that his public persona rubs some the wrong way, but in terms of music I don’t even know anyone who belongs in the same paragraph as him over the last 10 years.”
It’s been almost 10 years since West made his first appearance at Bluesfest. It was 2007, and while it was a “big night,” says Bluesfest director Mark Monahan, “we got him just six months too early, the year before his huge success, and I’ve always wanted to bring him back.”
The Citizen’s Lynn Saxberg wrote in her review of the 2007 show that “the rain was coming down hard and West was rapping hard.” Monahan remembers the show as “one of our first forays into the rap world, and it was controversial for us to do it back then.”
Eight years later, West is a much bigger celebrity and player in the music world, yet still his appearance at Bluesfest draws controversy. “I think he transcends the hip hop world,” Monahan says. “He’ll draw us a lot of attention, for sure.
“He’s controversial, but he’s a huge part of our current music culture. I think it’s important to have him at the festival.”
Those who oppose West being at Bluesfest may underestimate the breadth of the rapper’s appeal, and of hip hop’s appeal in general. Monahan rejects “the idea that rap or hip hop is just a young person’s music. I’m 52. I remember my brother when I was a teenager ... introducing me to rap music.”
Monahan saw West perform last year at the Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee. He says the show has a lot of video and is dramatic. “A Kanye show is a spectacle,” he says. “He’s a performer, just a fantastic performer. He’s got a presence. It was definitely a very entertaining show that I saw.”
There is another, more singular controversy brewing around the West show, with Bluesfest fans who bought “Pick 3” passes during last week’s pre-sale — before the festival’s biggest name was announced.
The passes allowed fans to choose, at time of purchase, any three days from the festival, and the days cannot be changed later.
“I and many others that I know bought those tickets,” says Bluesfest fan Stephen Dinning in an email sent to me Monday. “That Bluesfest had a pre-sale of tickets, whilst withholding the largest name on their schedule, is completely unfair to those of us who have already purchased tickets and are now locked into those dates.”
Dinning acknowledges that the tickets say “schedule can change without notice,” but he argues the situation is still “completely unfair,” because many Pick 3 pass buyers “would have selected one of their days to see Kanye West.”
Meanwhile, as of 3:30 p.m. Monday the Stop Kanye at Bluesfest Facebook page had 19 members.
The Glastonbury anti-Kanye petition had 132,433.