The Kanye News
Summary
TLDRMusic 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
🎤 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.
😡 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.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Kanye West
💡vultures
💡apology
💡art from artist
💡JPEGMAFIA
💡Freddie Gibbs
💡Burzum
💡Varg Vikernes
💡dog whistle
💡cynical
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
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