— Musings —10.12.2018 07:47 AM
Kanye West
Look, I loathe his music with an intensity that is brighter than a hundred suns. But he’s impossible to ignore, today, because of this.
I am not a psychiatrist, and neither is just about anyone else I know. But I will hazard a guess, here, and say that Kanye West suffers from mental illness. It’s apparently known that he has been diagnosed as bipolar, and he’s reportedly off his meds.
So. Unlike not a few folks (who should know better) I won’t laugh at the guy. He’s sick, looks like, and he needs help, per the cliché. Maybe even a bit of compassion.
But his music still fucking sucks.
I like that this story coincides with the release of unpublished Leonard Cohen poems, including one called “Kanye West is no Picasso.” Skewering this BS culture from the grave. Geez I sure miss that guy.
What music?
Kanye’s music sucks does it? Compared to what? The music of J.S. Bach, or Duke Ellington, or the Beatles or John Coltrane? Come on. I wouldn’t know a Kanye West song if it jumped up and bit me on the ass. But somebody likes what he does. His accomplishments are staggering. He is an African-American who has been amazingly successful in a very difficult industry. I do not listen to the music that “the kids” are listening to today, but I’m 61 years old and that music isn’t being made for me. But I respect the hell out of someone who can make a living in the music business, and this guy is a giant in today’s market. As has been said in the past, one may prefer the company of a gentleman, but one has to respect the professional.
You do know I’ve been in punk bands for 40+ years, yes? I think everything except reggae and punk sucks.
Except blues….
LA
Fair enough….I may have seen you in Calgary back in the day…I lived there at the time and went to a few events featuring punk rock bands. I am well aware of your nasty past ( and good on you for getting out there and doing your thing). In my misplaced sense of fair play, I felt compelled to jump in. I respectfully disagree, but when it comes to art, everybody should have their say.
You’ve made the common link that good music sales and popularity equate to good underlying music. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the two are often not synonymous.
However, the key is “my opinion”. The idea of certain music “sucking” is very much a matter of subjectivity. So there is nothing wrong with WK saying Kanye’s music sucks, because to him it does.
There are lots of rich untalented musicians, and lots of poor talented musicians. Convincing the public to buy your music is the most important skill. Actual musical talent is secondary.
With all due respect, I did not “link” good music (whatever that is) to sales and popularity. I simply stated that KW has had a very successful career, in a business where (according to the good doctor) good men die like dogs and thieves and pimps run free. I agree talent alone is not a guarantee of success, but I am not aware of any rich untalented musicians. It may be that their talent is in a field that some people (although not everybody) appreciates, but if they got rich, somebody liked what they were doing.
What’s truly pathetic in this whole story is that Trump and his supporters (including his full-time bootlickers over on Breitbart) are making a big deal about the fact that Trump actually found two black people who were willing to say nice things about him.
As someone who has been listening to Kanye since high school (just outted myself as the only millennial on here, didn’t I?), I can say that the music of Yeezy ’08 is not even comparable to the music of Ye ’18.
The only thing that has remained constant is Kanye’s god-complex – the very thing we praised him for when he was making great music.
The problem is that along with that god-complex are serious mental health issues he obviously has. You don’t need to be a psychiatrist to see that his mental health has deteriorated significantly since his mother’s death. That is compounded by the fact that he is married into the Kardashians – a family notoriously shallow and narcissistic.
Kanye was an incredibly talented artist, but he’s not a genius. He’s just an ill-informed man with no sense of consequence and guardrails.
Plus, he’s not even making great music anymore.
Yes, and it’s interesting how Kanye, with his mental health issues, gravitates towards Trump, who is the poster child for Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Kanye seeks attention; where attention is directed, he is drawn. Whether thats by marrying Kim Kardashian or pronouncing his affection for Donald Trump.
Kanye knows that controversy begets publicity and Donald Trump is the most controversial person in America. At the end of the day, Kanye doesn’t really care about Trump and vice-versa. To Kanye, the world is watching his “genius” mind work in real time while Trump receives the endorsement of a real celebrity that he so desperately craves.
I couldn’t watch that entire unhinged rant, but there’s no doubt West need some medical and psychological help.