2nd
That Shit Cray
Haaay y’all. It’s Black History Month! I’m so sorry I’m not sorry black people have 29 (EXTRA DAY THIS YEAR!) to talk about all things black people and history and politics and food and music and YAAAY BLACK PEOPLE, but I want to talk about one of MY favorite black people.
Kanye West.
I said, I dunno, a few weeks back, I actually side-eye anyone who disparaged Ye. I was only slightly kidding. First of all, I adore him as a producer and rapper. College Dropout gave me the chills the first time I heard it; I praised Jeebus and dropped to my knees in thanks after spending years of having to listen to Diddy on Hot 97 say ‘YEAH, UNNNH.’
He makes other people sound pretty damn amazing, too. He has a great gift; he drops a beat that makes you want to shake your ass, with lyrics you want to listen to over and over. Pretty much the greatest, as far as I’m concerned.
But, BUT! He owns every bit of his boasts. He IS that smart, that funny, that unrepentant. And he’s a snazzy dresser, with no apologies for wearing what he wants, when he wants, however the fuck he wants.
And whatever comes spilling out of his mouth? Yus. We laugh at his ALL CAPS freakouts on Twitter, but after Don Cornelius’ passing yesterday, I’ve been thinking about black people who have, with simple statements and work, changed the discussion about and landscape of black people and politics in this country. Kanye did it, in one base, angry and BRUTALLY HONEST statements in front of the world. On September 4, 2005, Kanye West stood up and simply said what each and every one of us had been thinking.
“George Bush doesn’t care about black people.’
Well. He didn’t, did he? We watched, in absolute horror, the disaster and misery that was New Orleans. We watched the people of New Orleans suffer through a lack of order and humanity that is usually reserved for apocalyptic fictional films. EXCEPT! It wasn’t a movie, it was CNN/MSNBC/every TV station in the universe, broadcasting live, people starving, dying and our ‘noble’ leader flying over the devastation and shaking hands with an incompetent, inept and genuinely idiotic emergency manager.
Then. Oh yes, that infamous outburst about Beyonce. Well….Single Ladies IS better than Taylor Swiffer’s You Belong With Me. Give me a fucking break. Sure, he was probably drunk and Beyonce is hardly a shrinking violet and needs reinforcements, but damn if he isn’t right. And furthermore, isn’t he addressing the bullshit of the nice, white girl who writes insipid and embarrassing diary songs about her Iwanna-boyfriend with a banjo? Don’t tell me there isn’t a creepy racial and social undertone with honoring Taylor Swiffer instead of a big, beautiful, powerhouse of a black woman who dances and sings Taylor Swiffer off the damn planet.
Kanye West is my id, my conscious, and my voice for everything in which I am too timid to say. He has the clout, the finances and the guts to say all of it, every bit of it, and he will never let me down.
Let’s have a toast to my favorite douchebag. I love you, Ye.
