The Kanye News

Summary

Music critic Anthony Fantano discusses the moral implications of rapper Kanye West's embrace of hateful ideologies and controversial figures. Fantano argues West's pattern of racist speech and promotion of white supremacists makes it impossible to separate his reprehensible views from his art. He also critiques JPEGMAFIA's hypocrisy in denouncing artists with questionable morals while collaborating with West. Fantano contends West is either a sincere racist or cynically courting racism for attention, both of which are deeply troubling.

Takeaways

• 😠 Kanye West's upcoming album releases raise concerns given his recent controversial behavior.
• 😡 Kanye has aligned himself with hateful ideologies like white supremacy and Nazism.
• 😠 Many fans try to justify or dismiss Kanye's words and actions, but he continues to platform hate.
• 😒 Kanye's hateful views are now showing up in his music and art, making it hard to separate art from artist.
• 😠 Kanye drags down and attacks anyone who questions or criticizes him.
• 😕 JPEGMAFIA met with Kanye for the new album, despite previously criticizing such views.
• 😠 JPEGMAFIA seems to ignore the moral implications of working with Kanye.
• 😡 Kanye wears racist Varg Vikernes' band shirt, while Varg happily endorses it for publicity.
• 😕 Kanye is either embracing racism/Nazism or cynically chasing attention. Both are bad.
• 😞 Kanye faces no consequences, and many fans enable his behavior.

Q & A

What albums is Kanye West planning to release?

Kanye West is planning to release a series of albums titled 'Vultures' over the course of February, March and April 2024.

Why is Anthony Fantano skeptical about the albums being released?

Anthony is skeptical because Kanye has a history of announcing albums that never end up being released, and he has had difficulty finishing projects lately.

What controversial views and activities has Kanye aligned himself with recently?

Kanye has endorsed white supremacists, aligned himself with Nazism, and platformed multiple known racists.

How does Anthony counter the arguments that Kanye has apologized or is just trying to spread a message of universal love?

Anthony argues that Kanye's apology means nothing if he continues the same behavior, and that his actual treatment of people who criticize him shows he is not genuinely loving everyone.

Why does Anthony say it's hard to separate Kanye's art from his views?

Because Kanye's controversial views show up in the albums' lyrics, art, and the people he associates with musically.

What does JPEGMAFIA's reaction say about the situation?

Despite JPEGMAFIA having criticized racism and white supremacy in his music, he met and worked with Kanye even though Kanye has aligned with those views.

What was questionable about Freddie Gibbs that JPEGMAFIA called out?

JPEGMAFIA suggested Freddie Gibbs abandoned his baby's mother when she was pregnant with his child.

How did Varg Vikernes, the Burzum musician, react to Kanye wearing his band's shirt?

He welcomed it, seeing it as a chance for more exposure, even though Kanye has aligned with views Varg himself has promoted.

Why does Anthony say it doesn't matter if Kanye is definitively racist or not?

Because either way, Kanye continually uses his platform to promote racists and racism, whether he sincerely believes in it or is just chasing attention.

What effect is Kanye having on his fan base?

Many of his fans are increasingly embracing openly racist views themselves or at least tolerating Kanye's promotion of those views.

Outlines

00:00

🎤 Kanye's Upcoming Album Raises Concerns

Anthony Fantano discusses Kanye West's newly announced three-part album series 'Vultures.' He expresses skepticism about whether the albums will actually be released given Kanye's history of failed releases. More importantly, Fantano struggles to justify supporting Kanye's music given the artist's embrace of hateful ideologies and alignment with white supremacists in recent years.

05:03

😡 Inconsistencies in jpegmafia's Criticism

Fantano highlights inconsistencies in reactions to Kanye West from rapper/producer JPEGMAFIA. Despite JPEGMAFIA previously targeting bigoted artists, he met with Kanye while the latter wore a shirt supporting known racist metal musician Varg Vikernes. Fantano argues it's hypocritical for JPEGMAFIA to criticize others over moral issues yet ignore Kanye's racism.

Keywords

💡Kanye West

Kanye West is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur and fashion designer. He is introduced in the beginning of the video as the main topic, with the script focusing on his controversial actions and statements in recent years. Examples are provided such as his endorsement of white supremacists, alignment with Nazism, and platforming of hateful ideologies.

💡vultures

Vultures is the name of the upcoming 3-part album series Kanye plans to release in 2023. It's mentioned that there are doubts around whether these albums will actually be released on time, given Kanye's history of announcing projects that fail to materialize.

💡apology

The script argues that Kanye's past apologies for offensive behavior are meaningless unless he actually changes his conduct going forward. An example is provided of Kanye continuing to associate with white supremacists despite apologizing previously.

💡art from artist

There is a common argument that art should be separated from the artist's personal life or beliefs. However, the script counters that Kanye makes this separation impossible since his offensive ideology shows up directly in his music and albums.

💡JPEGMAFIA

JPEGMAFIA (aka Peggy) is a rapper who recently met with Kanye, presumably to work on the Vultures albums. Fans have called out this hypocrisy given Peggy's past lyrical attacks on racism and white supremacy.

💡Freddie Gibbs

Freddie Gibbs is a rapper who has allegedly abandoned his responsibilities as a father. Peggy calls out the questionable morality of working with Gibbs, further highlighting inconsistencies around his collaboration with Kanye.

💡Burzum

Burzum is a Norwegian black metal band, originally created by Varg Vikernes who is a known white supremacist. Kanye wearing a Burzum t-shirt in photos draws criticism given the racist views of Vikernes.

💡Varg Vikernes

Varg Vikernes is the sole member of Burzum, as well as an outspoken neo-Nazi. Despite previously criticizing Vikernes, Peggy is fine working with Kanye even as he visibly supports Vikernes by wearing Burzum merch.

💡dog whistle

Dog whistling refers to the use of coded or vague language to communicate racist ideas without explicitly stating them. The script notes how Vikernes engages in dog whistles about Jewish control of the music industry after seeing Kanye in a Burzum shirt.

💡cynical

The script poses two possible reasons for Kanye's offensive behavior - either he genuinely believes in white supremacist ideology, or he is cynically using it for attention. It argues the latter option is no better than the former.

Highlights

Kanye West has announced 3 new albums titled 'Vultures' to be released over the next few months

Kanye has aligned himself with Nazism and white supremacy recently, making it hard to look forward to his new albums

Many Kanye fans try to gaslight and ignore his embrace of hateful ideologies

Kanye's apologies and justifications for his views ring hollow as he continues the same behavior

Kanye claims to love everyone, but actually attacks and harasses critics

It's impossible to separate Kanye's hateful views from his art since it shows up explicitly

JPEGMAFIA met with Kanye but seems conflicted about Kanye's hateful associations

JPEGMAFIA has criticized white supremacy in songs, making his alliance with Kanye strange

Kanye wore a Burzum shirt designed by known racist Varg Vikernes

Vikernes welcomed Kanye wearing his shirt, happy for the attention

Vikernes is more subtly racist now while Kanye openly says hateful things

It doesn't matter if Kanye is actually racist or just acting that way for attention

Kanye continually uses his platform to promote racists and gathers their support

Kanye is either embracing racism out of agreement or cynically for attention

Many Kanye fans feel no shame supporting him despite his hateful associations

Transcripts

hey everyone Anthony fantano here

internet's busiest music nerd and let's

talk about uh falling deeper into a pit

of uh depravity cuz the current Kanye

West situation has just gotten Kanye

Weser if you've been out of the loop

Kanye West TI doign and Company have a

new album or Now albums on the way

titled vultures which yeah last time I

checked as not just one single release

it's going to be three volumes of

releases uh spread out over February

March and April and I don't know uh

could happen currently my hopes for uh

these projects coming out not high

especially given how often Kanye tends

to announce albums that uh don't see the

light of day considering how difficult

it seems to have been lately for him to

finish any project at all it'll be a

miracle if all of these records come out

in sound complete when they do and maybe

Miracle is a weird word to use I don't

even know if I'm looking forward to

these albums considering Kanye's recent

extracurricular activities you know

endorsing white supremacists and

aligning himself with Nazism and so on

and so forth which is an increasingly

difficult point to stand on sometimes

given just how many Kanye West fans will

come out of the woodwork desperately to

Gaslight you to tell you all the things

he said over the past year or two

none of that means anything while also

ignoring recent instances of this same

thing and quickly I'd like to preempt

two responses that will inevitably pop

up in the comments that one he said

sorry and he apologized but an apology

is essentially worth nothing if you just

kind of continue on conducting yourself

the same exact way prior to the apology

that's not how saying sorry works you

actually have to try to do better at

some point the the second is oh Kanye

doesn't actually believe in any of this

white supremacist stuff or think Hitler

is great he's just trying to illustrate

to us the importance of loving everyone

even people who are bad and hateful

which also [ __ ] also a lie anybody

telling you that is lying to you lying

to themselves because yeah in the

abstract it's really easy to be like oh

we we should love everybody especially

when you're talking about historical

figures who are dead okay thought

experiment ask yourself this how does

Kanye treat people in his actual life

who are alive who are guilty of far less

than hating him people who are maybe

questioning his decisions or criticizing

him do I even need to say it think about

it how does he treat people who do that

what have the people who have done that

in Kanye's Circle been met with in

recent years were they given love and

acceptance were they embraced uh no they

weren't uh they were actually shut out

and thrown under the bus and harassed

and attacked and ridiculed and pulled

apart weird it's actually like uh Kanye

isn't living by that standard and it's

all complete [ __ ] and you're a [ __ ]

if you think he's being on the level

third argument is uh Anthony come on

separate the art from the artist please

the problem there is Kanye's Endor ment

of this ideology over the past year or

so has had some pretty bad real world

consequences that are tough to ignore

and then two he himself makes it hard to

separate the art from the artist because

the [ __ ] shows up in the album art in

the lyrics of the damn songs the artist

is in fact in the art so it's Kanye who

is making that separation uh near

impossible and not only that but he

continues to drag down anybody who stays

along for the ride case in point the the

recent drama that has been uh drummed up

as a result of this photo rapper singer

songwriter producer jpeg Mafia meeting

up with Kanye West presumably to uh

maybe put in some work on some of these

vulture songs because recently Peggy has

gone on uh some heated and aggressive

Twitter rants about the people Kanye has

been working with around this project

but also being skeptical of their moral

character too like in this one tweet

where he's talking about Freddy Gibbs

who allegedly ran out on his uh kid that

he recently had by um the the fit mommy

who Freddy was in a very public

relationship for quite a long time but

then seemingly uh the moment she is with

child he just kind of is gone it's kind

of a crazy story Destiny has been very

vocal about it meanwhile Freddy has been

pretty much radio silence and again I

bring it up up to say clearly for Peggy

uh there's some kind of like moral line

going on here something that's sussy or

sketchy about working with a dude like

Freddy Gibbs at this point and it's just

kind of weird to me that uh working with

somebody who has done something as

Brazen and as stupid as uh endorse

Hitler and embrace and platform multiple

white supremacists why does that not

register on your radar as far as like hm

you know bad moral decision going on

here maybe oh my God he's going to go

blonde and look this inconsistency is

not something I'm making up in my own

head or presuming and projecting on to

Peggy it's something that his own fans

have been pointing out since the release

of this photo because the man has put

multiple bars in his music going at

White supremacists and people uh who

align themselves with the alt-right or

public figures like morisy who have a

history of being bigoted idiots if

anybody is the morisy of hipop in the

current day it's Kanye and to add insult

to injury he appears next to Kanye West

as West is wearing a bers shirt the old

school Norwegian black metal project

masterminded by known racist VAR viernes

a man who Peggy has mentioned by name in

his own songs in a negative light now to

make things even more interesting uh VAR

has responded to this photo of Kanye

wearing a bers shirt and has publicly

commented on it on his Twitter page

while uh promoting his new book that I I

have to say the the cover art man

graphic design is my [ __ ] passion bro

given the image and the font and the

quality of art godamn this man is really

like not matured at all since the 9s

what's even funnier is uh he hashtags

Kanye's name but actually spells it

wrong yeah #c West and VAR responds to

the whole thing surprisingly uh with a

pretty warm response here although I

can't really be too surprised because uh

despite the fact that VAR has taken a

pretty staunch position in the past on

artists and bands that he believes are

like you know appropriating black metal

culture and are you know posers and

aren't true to the scene and so on and

so forth on top of racist views that

he's expressed in the past no he's

actually open to Kanye wearing the shirt

why because not too much unlike Kanye

the most important thing to VAR actually

is exposure and attention so of course

if this pipelines more people in his

direction to buy his crappy book uh for

sure he's going to endorse it he goes on

to to say uh that it shows courage to

publicly wear a bers shirt and that he

risks the Wrath including boycott of an

entire music industry completely under

the control of a certain group also it's

kind of crazy how VAR is lowgrade dog

whistling here meanwhile Kanye West just

says the thing at this point currently

Kanye is more openly racist than VAR is

even VAR won't say half the [ __ ] that

Kanye is willing to say which all drives

me to this question is Kanye West racist

the answer is does it even matter

because even if I had an hour worth of

material and examples of Kanye doing

racist [ __ ] I wouldn't be able to

provably tell you what is in the man's

heart but what I can tell you is that uh

he's doing and saying things that a

racist would do he's continually using

his platform to elevate the visibility

of known racists and he is gathering

more and more and more vocal support

from racists yeah he's either doing this

stuff because he likes it and he thinks

it's cool and he agrees with it or uh

he's just cynically embracing it for

attention which how is that better

you're telling me your goat is either a

Nazi or a cynical liar either way that's

kind of embarrassing however since Kanye

really knows no shame uh many of his

fans don't either so who knows if at the

end of the day that will really matter

yeah so the that's uh your nutty Kanye

update I suppose and I think we can uh

leave it at that over here next to my

head is another video that you can check

out hit that up or the link to subscribe

to the channel uh Anthony fantano of

forever