If you're driving down my relatively quiet Naperville street in the coming days and happen to witness a silver disc glistening in the sunlight as it slices the Indian summer air after having been ejected from my second floor office window, you'll know that I came across another Kanye West cd in my collection and am showing it the same respect that Kanye West shows others.
After last night, I am DONE with Kanye West.
For those of you that are unaware, open a new tab in your browser while you're reading this, go to YouTube, and type in Kanye's name along with "Taylor Swift" and "VMAs" and you'll have your needed point of reference. I did not see it live as it happened. I was in Soldier Field at the U2 concert. A funny coincidence that I was consuming the music of an act that truly cares about people and attempts (whether you like them or not) to edify the soul in some small way.
Meanwhile, Taylor Swift, a country singer, wins a VMA that we might have expected to go to Beyonce, and Kanye jumps up to steal the microphone.
Steals it right out of her hands...a teenage girl with the biggest-selling album of 2009. Her first VMA. And then he says, "Hey Taylor. I'm really happy for you..." and then proceeds to spout off about how Beyonce made "one of the best music videos of all-time" (for "Single Ladies") and deserved the award instead. He then returns the mic and walks away, leaving a stunned Swift in front of a huge audience (with millions more at home), as she attempts to hold herself together. A camera shot of the crowd shows an equally-blindsided Beyonce, who cannot believe what she's hearing. Taylor maintains her composure but cannot muster a thank-you speech after that. Beyonce, showing much class, gives Taylor her moment back later in the evening by giving her acceptance speech time to Swift.
That Kanye would insert himself into a moment that had nothing to do with him is not much of a suprise. And while it's hard to know for sure exactly what his motives were -- genuine outrage at a perceived injustice? racial motivation? self-publicity? -- one thing IS clear. Kanye West, for whatever reason, feels entitled to the spotlight. He believes to his soul that he not only deserves to be the most highly-decorated recording artist in music today, but that all others should pause whenever he has a thought, idea or opinion. Funny enough, his ego eclipses even that of Bono's...one of the biggest egos of our time. But at least Bono uses his for good and is self-depreciating about it.
The sad thing in all of this is that Kanye needed the spotlight to shine on him last night. By pulling this stunt, he has all of us talking about him, and that's exactly what he wants. Here I am, guilty as hell and giving him MORE publicity by dwelling on the incident. And sure, there is genuine backlash. Donald Trump is one of many celebrities calling for a boycott of Kanye's music. Pink went on "The Today Show" this morning and called him a "toolbox" (among other things).
Kanye West is arrogant, self-serving, self-righteous, vainglorious, abrasive and delusional. He's also incredibly, incredibly talented. And herein lies the problem that I was wrestling with...until now.
I have always believed that I could separate the artist from the art. I have liked in the past -- and continued to like -- the work of actors, singers, musicians and artists who, in their personal lives, exhibit questionable (if not deplorable) moral behavior. I am not self-righteous. The "those who live in glass houses" line is never buried too far back in my brain. I am there for the art, not the artist. So even as Kanye's infamous jerk-ness expanded, I pushed it to the back because the first three cds were crazy-good. (Not so much the latest auto-tune adventure, but that's a story for another day.)
But as I get older, I'm finding it harder to separate the art from the artist. And Kanye continues to win my hard-earned money as well as too much of my time. I feel sorry that this is at the expense of Taylor Swift, an artist that I have NO interest in...I should disclose. But I'm glad this happened. I just woke up.
Is it ridiculous to boycott Kanye West? No, I don't think so. The great thing about his line of work is that WE are the ones who give him his power, and we can take it away. And since it's hard to drop someone from your list of favorites or just your radar because of stunts like this, here's my opinion. If you're going to listen to Kanye after today, don't pay him. I've never advocated illegal downloading of music, but from now on, if I like a Kanye song, that's how I'll be getting it. I won't attend one of his shows or a multi-artist show with him on the bill. I'll hit "mute" when I see him on TV and scroll past his comments when they pop up on a computer screen.
We need to stop giving the power to people who misuse it! There are PLENTY of other talents out there doing work that is just as good and far more positive. It's time for us to give Kaney what he deserves, because I'm tired of him always getting what he wants.
This is not a race issue. This is not a religion issue. This is about human dignity, decency and respect. Nobody deserves to be treated the way Kanye treats just about everyone in his path. When you support him, you give him permission. And I can't believe I'm saying that out loud because I never used to feel that way. But when we do nothing, we give permission. And he'll keep making great music and my kids will fall in love with him and he'll be their example, their role model. And that though makes me SICK.
I still like Kanye's music. I'm keeping the good songs that I've already paid for on my iTunes. But right now, I'm using "The College Dropout" as a coaster for my can of Diet Pepsi Lime. If it wouldn't hurt so bad, I'd even wipe my butt with it. But I'll get off of my soapbox now and crank up the U2 in my office, and you can tease me about how commercial they've become, or how grandiose, or how silly all of the AIDS and Africa and political grandstanding stuff is. But my conscience is clean, and I'm getting to the age where few things are more important. Hell, I might even check out that Taylor Swift...
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