HERE YE, HEAR YE
Ye’s interview at Piers Morgan Uncensored was difficult to watch, but we did anyway. Here’s what we learnt
YE’S (the rapper formerly known as
Kanye West) interview with Piers Morgan on 19 October was, to say the least, explosive. The interview came at the back of a pa icularly controversial tweet by Ye that read, “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 [sic] on JEWISH PEOPLE.
The funny thing is I can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also. You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposed your agenda.”
The fallout was substantial. Celebrities both Jewish and non-Jewish posted their social media denouncements of Ye.
Twi er suspended his account. Brands such as Balenciaga and Gap ended their pa nerships with Ye.
Even Adidas terminated their pa nership with Ye, a er almost a decade of a collaboration that, at the time of writing, makes up 10% of Adidas’ revenue. From here on out, if you want your Yeezys, you will have to microwave your Crocs and hope for the best.
The interview began with the rap superstar and fashion icon explaining the point of “extreme exhaustion” that led to him writing the tweet. Ye spoke out against unscrupulous actors in the ente ainment industry, who “have taken money from my children’s mouths to put into their children’s mouths”, and called for more stringent examinations of ente ainment industry contracts, especially for black ente ainers.
But he quickly negated any sympathy he might have built up.
“What led me to that point? What led me – a successful, influential, extremely extremely extremely [sic] a ractive person to that point?” he asked. In the interview, he went a er these specifically Jewish businessmen, likening his threat against “JEWISH PEOPLE” to the violence dealt on black people throughout American history.
Piers Morgan quite rightly pointed out that racism is racism, even if you come from a group of people that has been historically treated with racism.
A er about an hour and a half of questioning, the braggadocio subsided somewhat and gave way to some introspection. “It’s wrong to hold an apology hostage and I go a let go of that and free myself of the trauma. I will say I’m sorry for the people I hu with the ‘death con’, with the confusion, I feel like I caused hu and confusion and I am sorry for the families of the people who had nothing to do with the trauma that I had been through,” he said. “Hu people hu people, and I was hu .”
If anything, I saw a wealthy, privileged man crying for help, but without the humility or awareness to do it in a healthier manner. His pla orm has grown larger than his ability to look at himself critically, and right now, he is clearly using his pla orm as a crutch.
“I’m like top five writers in human existence, in human history,” Ye said early in the interview. At another point, he described himself as having a “creative mind, beautiful mind, sensitive mind”. That’s what he tells himself when these things happen – he’s ahead of his time, he’s too different from others of
“average mind” and we simply cannot understand his brilliance.
Perhaps. But what we do understand is his inflammatory remarks, his anti-Semitic rhetoric, his refusal to seek help for what are clearly mental wellness issues.
Whatever did we see in this man?
To be fair, he is a brilliant musician.
It’s his decision to be more than that, to try and speak beyond the limits of his understanding, perhaps in an a empt to reach the divine, that has led him to this. In this, I see many similarities between him and a reality TV star named Donald Trump.
I am reminded of the words of
Dr. Evil in the deeply philosophical spy film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery – “My father would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The so of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament.”