I continue to find it shocking that people go that crazy if he doesn't align with you politically. It's like people want to somehow disqualify him as a musician.
I listen to tons of metal music that's weird satanic shit, and I'm an atheist. I really can't be bothered to care too much if the music is awesome. I guess I didn't realize how much people think of the musicians they like as role models for their entire worldview. I'm usually just out to hear interesting music.
For a lot of us black folks, it has nothing to do with "aligning with us politically" and everything to do with his platform having so much power, and him using that power to further enable someone like Trump, who directly NEGATIVELY impacts the people that generally support his music.
That said, on that same note, it also rings extremely hollow because it is the very opposite of what he (at least seemed to) talk about in the past.
And EVEN IF YOU WANT TO GIVE HIM THAT! He is spewing factually wrong information that some of these alt-right stooges will use to beat us over the head with whenever possible, or in Trump's case, sell more of thise ugly-ass MUh-Guhhh hats. Hell, it's already happening en masse online.
And you know what? If he wasn't factually wrong and spewing something so heinous (slavery by definition is absent of fuckin' choice, this is first-grade level shit), I'd just write him off as a crazy convert and be done with it. But, come to find out (well it as assum d anyway due to what he's said in the past, but still),
he doesn't even know the policies this man or this group he's signal boosting stands for.
So yeah, if it were a minor political difference like "we should be spending money on XYZ"? Yeah whatever, fine, personally have plenty of people in my life and artists/musicians/etc I disagree with. But when you're wearing a MAhh-Gaaww hat, talking about how you have "free thought" and other such nonsense, but someone asks you if you know about the Muslim ban and you're like "huh? What ban?"
Nah, that's not just an artist I used to like having a political difference from me. That's a man with a captive young black audience, tossing a grenade around on stage telling people "it's safe it's safe" but not knowing what happens if the pin gets knocked loose.
Maybe it's me, but that's not okay.
For the record: I haven't cared much about Kanye's work for a long time, but have tried to give him the benefit of the doubt over the years. He is far divorced from the rapper/producer I listened to on Common's albums, on College Dropout, etc.
