Kanye being Kanye?

 

Things have been weird in Kanyeland for a long time now — some might say forever. But especially so in recent years, if we’re honest, with the man behaving increasingly erratically by all measurable accounts. His antics on TV, his pro-Trump positions that surprised most people including his inner circle, his own “presidential campaign” if you can call it that, his quickly deteriorating relationship with his now ex-wife… It has not been all bad, mind you: the cynics here will be quick to point out that he also became a billionaire during that time, and that his media and fashion empire is doing just fine.

Still, recent news are looking particularly disconcerting. First, there is the situation with ex-wife Kim Kardashian. As was to be expected after a while, the social media superstar — and herself a massively successful entrepreneur and individual — eventually had enough of West’s antics, which actually included legally changing his name to “Ye”. Just Ye. And so the pair separated, although that transitional period was also quite strange: West could be seen alternatively lamenting over the fact that his wife was leaving him and being linked to famous — and single — young women. Kardashian didn’t look back, however, is now a “free” woman, who’s dating again, as she should.

Which brings us to the latest escalation in Kanye drama. Kardashian’s new boyfriend is comedian Pete Davidson, who was previously engaged to popstar Ariana Grande and is also a celebrity in his own right thanks to his stint on SNL, multiple movie roles and overall media presence (although he ironically is not on social media). Also, he’s much younger than West or Kardashian, which must be annoying. Over the past few months, West, who meanwhile was seen out with a variety of women, grew increasingly confrontational about Davidson and his relationship with Kim, which culminated in the rapper releasing not one but two music videos that saw animated versions of himself chopping an equally animated Davidson’s head off. No matter how you hash it out, that’s just disturbing.

It didn’t stop there: after weeks of online harassment which included posting personal text exchanges with Kardashian on social media, West eventually went after Trevor Noah too, because the comedian and TV host had dared to weigh in on the situation on his show. To top it off, that latest attack happened to have an overtly racist characteristic. In a rare feat that saw West ironically join his one-time political ally, Donald J. Trump, the rapper got banned from Instagram for 24 hours. And then banned from performing at the Grammy awards for much of the same reason.

Which does make sense: the first time we saw Kanye behave shockingly poorly was at an awards show way back when…