Kanye runs for Kanye

 

Kanye West is known for many things: his Twitter tirades (remind you of anyone?), his shoes (and the fashion empire that comes with it), his wife (and her Instagram-friendly selfies)… and, of course, his music. Which is, after all, how we came to know about him in the first place. And for very good reason too: starting his career as a performer in his late 20’s after years of producing work, it didn’t take long for him to be noticed. In fact, it only took his debut album, 2004’s now cult The College Dropout, which features perhaps his most lasting anthem: the remarkable — and Grammy winning — “Jesus walks”.

In the years that followed, West’s stature kept on rising, as his projects got ever more acclaim. On the musical side of things, let us only mention one double hitter: 2010’s stylishly introspective My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and its gloriously well-paired follow-up, 2013’s Watch The Throne with fellow superstar rapper Jay Z. On the business side of things, while some of his more grandiose plans may have been just that, West’s design and clothing projects did meet an astounding level of success. And, on the media front, aided in no small part by wife Kim Kardashian’s enormous platform, the man’s image has continued to grow steadily in fame — and controversy. For his outbursts have been known for a while now, and have been somewhat credibly attributed to the fact that West suffers from bipolar disorder, an affliction which clearly shows in his various enterprises, although he alternatively claims he is absolutely fine…

Then come politics. West first announced his ambition to become President of the United States years ago, and was mostly met with laughter (again, remind you of anyone?). Then, he quite officially paired up with the White House’s current resident, famously coming to meet him while wearing one of those red MAGA hats. While he may have lost a few of his supporters in the process, he retained enough credibility to keep on working — and arguably gained an even greater level of fame. Then came July 4th 2020… and West’s semi-cryptical announcement that he was himself running for President.

In the days following that tweet — of course it was a tweet… — it appeared that West did prepare for a political campaign, filing or trying to file in various states, setting up a website, eventually announcing his first rally, which was held Sunday, July 19th, in South Carolina. That rally took place in remarkably strange fashion, even for Kanye West, even in 2020. He showed up wearing a bullet proof vest, got into a speech that was very clearly improvised, made assertions that were immediately debunked, including one about Harriet Tubman “never actually free[ing] the slaves”… and followed that rally with a tweet saying that his latest album, Donda, would be dropping soon. To no one’s surprise: he’d already uploaded that same information for a few — crucial — minutes as he first announced the event…

A lot of things can be said about this sequence of events, many of which are quite trivial. What remains is that Kanye West a) is technically running for President, although likely with even less intent to win than the incumbent had in 2016, b) releasing a new album named after his late mother, the third in as many years, c) behaving in a manner that clearly shows he is not in the best mental shape… or playing an incredibly cunning media game. Or both.