BY: JOSEPH DEBELL, OPINION EDITOR
Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
In a landscape brimming with talented artists creating compelling music, it’s time to move past Kanye West’s divisive legacy and embrace new voices.
Polarizing Chicago rapper, singer, songwriter, producer and former presidential candidate, Kanye West, collaborated with the talented singer and songwriter, Ty Dolla $ign, on their latest album, “Vultures I.”
While album rollouts and releases are potentially exciting, the LP arrives amidst a tumultuous time for West. It may seem that leaving West in the past could be a loaded assertion, but common sense suggests it’s the correct time for us not to give him attention anymore.
West’s rhetoric on “Vultures I” and everyday life is beyond the pale.
An example of his everyday life hate speech is when West went onto conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ podcast InfoWars and said, “Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler.”
The lyrics on this record echo this comment and go from anti-Semitic comments to lyrics referencing the Columbine High School massacre. Here is an example of one of the numerous lyrics that litter this record.
“How I’m anti-Semitic? I just f*cked a Jewish b*tch / I just f*cked Scooter’s b*tch, and we ran her like Olympics.”
These lyrics make it impossible to separate the art from the artist because West uses the same anti-Semitic rhetoric in his online persona and his lyrics.
In this case, asking someone to separate the art from the artist would be the same as asking them to separate their head from their body.
Some have attributed West’s comments to his battle with mental illnesses. However, this just gives more reason to let go of West. Kanye West shouldn’t be allowed to use his complex mental health struggles as a way of justifying hate speech.
The record has even caused noticeable departures. Anthony Fantano, a well-known music reviewer on YouTube, known for rating albums one through ten, detoured this system and made a video explaining how “Vultures I” is an “unreviewable” record.
“News flash, since 2022 Kanye has made it his mission to go full-on antisemite, spouting insane conspiracy theories, talking about how he loves Hitler,” said Fantano in his video titled “Unreviewable 1.” “At some point, I think [West] realized how much he f*cked up with all of that. So now he has to own this total dumpster fire he’s created and boast about how people think he’s antisemitic now —because yeah — they do.”
Given how record labels and Adidas have dropped West, it’s safe to say that it’s time to bid farewell to Kanye West.
At risk of overstepping, replying and spinning older Kanye West tracks and records is never an issue. Moreover, the rampant hate speech in West’s comments and lyrics on his collaborative album have made it where it’s too much of a problem to push underneath the carpet.
debelljb22@bonaventure.edu
