It’s bad that all this kind of just makes me all the more fascinated in him and his career trajectory. He seems to be the living embodiment of the corrupting powers of fame, money and power and has been for a while, embracing a figure like Donald Trump seems like a perfectly logical next step in his story.
It’s crazy to have seen the transition happen in front of all of us from fresh-new-thing who is the antithesis of the “hard” image that hip-hop had at the time, comes in rapping about Jesus over chipmunk soul beats. Beefs it up with some fairly ostentatious orchestration for the next record. Gains infamy for correctly stating that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”.
Goes on tour with U2 and decides to make a stadium-rock hip hop equivalent and becomes the biggest star on the planet in the process (whilst simultaneously putting the nail in the coffin of commercial gangster rap). Then his gf leaves him and his Mum dies during botched cosmetic surgery that he paid for. Comes out with a dark, depressive record with barely any rapping on it which turns into one of the most influential records ever for the current breed of confessional rappers. Has the Taylor Swift incident and becomes public enemy number one.
Disappears for a bit, and seemingly has some serious self-realisation that he’s turned into a bit of a dickhead. Addresses this realisation by going to Hawaii and making the most absurdly grandiose, expensive record, fucking flies in the likes of Elton John to do backing vocals on a track. It’s an absolute masterpiece that seems simultaneously self-aware and ego-maniacal. Gets his reputation back and ascends to untouchable status that allows him to make an album called Yeezus and a track called I Am A God having started out with Jesus Walks and humble Christianity, even then though the album has got New Slaves which shows that he still seems to have some social awareness.
Marries a woman who he knows at any given moment he could watch having sex with another man (this isn’t meant to be a slam on her or anything, I find it a fascinating fact about him given his past though), makes an absolute mess of a record, constantly fiddles about with it and has a breakdown of sorts. Emerges a couple of years later throwing his support behind fucking Donald Trump and talking about how slavery was a choice.
It is utterly compelling despite being utterly infuriating and really, really sad.
