Media Flakeout. A Statement on Mr. West.
September 16, 2009
First things first. It is a sad and depressing world in which the antics of an inebriated musician dominate news coverage and take priority over drastically more pressing issues facing our nation. Due to the nature of the incident I feel like this is the proper venue to be talking about it, but for major news stations to continue offer coverage for this story is frankly pathetic.
I was sitting exactly 20 rows behind the action when our favorite unabashed practitioner of speaking one's mind hopped onto the stage and proceeded to add yet another gaffe to his resume of public mishaps. Although I was probably one of the only ones in Radio City Hall laughing at the immediate time of the interruption it took no time for the issue to be the talk of the entire nation. No really, the entire nation. CNN, NBC, ABC, Nas's favorite news station FOX and broadcasting channels I'd never heard of before were handling this incident like it was the OJ trial all over again. I don't even have to bring up Twitter where Mr. West has been a trending topic just about every hour since he hopped onto stage days ago.
So besides highlighting the fact that the vast majority of people have no lives and even less things to speak intelligently about this whole issue brought one sad thing to light for me personally. The depressing and fickle state of media and the frightening racial realities that still exist today in America. I've been sitting in University classes for the past week so excuse my essay writing ahead of time.
Take a look at the above. Back in 2005 the good folks over at the time honored publication known as Time magazine took it upon themselves to declare Kanye West "the smartest man in Pop music." Find any media outlet still stating the above and I'll literally grant you my life savings. (It's mostly sneakers don't start Googling just yet.)
Kanye is a jerk. Or in the words of the man who lives in the House of eternal Whiteness, a "jackass." But here is my problem with the whole world going off at one time and deciding to brand Kanye an ass at this particular juncture.
We've known Kanye to be an asshole for a very, very, very long time.
There is nothing new about these revelations. This is the artist who calls himself the international asshole after all. Hell, this isn't even the first time the man has jumped onto stage. But low and behold here comes the entire world who only years ago was declaring Kanye West a genius of the genre because he wore clothes that fit, rapped about leaving college, was the son of college professor and spoke on "socially conscious" topics rather than those of the street. The media was quick to embrace a rapper who diverged from the gangster imagery 50 Cent and others had made so popular at the time Kanye came to popularity.
Anything to make rap safe for the suburbs and mainstream consumption the major media outlets were ready to promote. Than, low and behold here comes Kanye in his Ralph Lauren Polo sweaters and Gap chinos. What more could they ask for right? Well I guess they didn't do their research because Kanye never lied or changed who he was. An asshole right from the jump.
He has been doing things like this from day one. If you appreciate Kanye as an artist than you should expect things like this to occur. And if you stand behind him as a person that you should not only expect these things, but you should in fact support those same actions since they come from a man you support. I think what he did was idiotic and in extremely bad taste but I still support Kanye and his actions that night and all the bone-headed, thick-skulled mistakes he'll make in the future.
Now I'm going to change lanes here and what I'm about to say is going to piss off a few people I'd imagine.
The fact that Kanye West had to interrupt Taylor Swift in order to create a veritable media wild storm is not a good statement about the state of racial realities in our nation. Now walk with me here for a moment and see if this makes any sense.
Kanye West once stood on national TV after a decade defining national tragedy in Hurricaine Katrina and said that the than President of the United States of America and I quote, "Does not care about Black people." Now to me, that seems FAR worse than interrupting an acceptance speech at an awards show that means next to nothing when you sit down and look at it.
Now how much media attention did Kanye get for that statement? As I recall, from major outlets the coverage was next to none. As it should have been. But whoa, whoa, whoa. Kanye West interuped a perfectly innocent suburban country singing, red meat eating, born and bred in the heartland of America teenage white girl from accepting an award and the entire nation goes to hell in a hand basket over the travesty.
There is something ass backwards about this situation and if you can't see it than I don't know what you're looking at. Maybe it's Kanye's haircut which was the only thing more offensive than his remarks that night.
Throughout history whenever a black man has violated the right of an "innocent," young, white female the reaction has redefined the word extreme. Ask Emmet Till.
I'm not trying to say that this should even be compared to this situation but look at what people are saying about Kanye West on Twitter. I believe there is already a "Kanyenigger" username spewing 140 characters worth of nonsense hourly. Not to mention the endless bevy of people (mostly middle aged white American men) saying that someone should murder, lynch, and in many more words kills Kanye West.
It brings about a sad realization about the feelings people bury deep. The feelings that only emerge when people feel something so grievous has occurred that they must let their true colors fly. The fact that this is what prompted people to speak is depressing on an entirely different level but at the same time completely expected if you take just a short look at the history of relations between these two parties.
Now I realize this is a little heavy for a Hypebeast blog. I've never been able to just look at things at their most simple level so I guess it's expected from my end. Hopefully someone else actually read all of that and has something to offer, I'd definitely love to read.
For those who just scrolled to the end, here is the synopsis. Kanye is an asshole, but you should expect these things from him, he has made no efforts to hide his feelings in the past why would he start now? The media is fickle and looking only to serve it's agenda and in realizing that Kanye is not the squeak clean, sweater clad, suburban rap icon they would like him to be are now enjoying a period of crucifying him for something that should have gotten 120 seconds of coverage and nothing more. Lastly, race relations in this country point to a black man violating an innocent white girl as a most egregious sin, even more so apparently than speaking blasphemously about a President or the vast array of current events that press our nation as we speak.
Sadly, although much is improved, very little as also changed. It is just buried deeper than ever under the skin and it takes moments like these to expose that truth.
I'm not even going to speak on our current President's comments. Barry O was trying to keep it funky.
Stay Safe,
Phil.
Agreed on so many levels.