By now you’ve heard the buzz around Kanye’s appearance on Ellen. The haters just couldn’t wait to go in on the guy after this.
“Kanye west goes crazy on Ellen”
“Watch loony Kanye loose it in ridiculous rant”
“Ellen horrified by cray Kanye”
Are they kidding? How can people hate this guy? All he’s got is love. It’s so surface to think ‘oh he’s so arrogant he says he’s a god’ – don’t they get it? He’s showing the power of what can be achieved if you believe in yourself.
When he calls himself a god he means we are all gods, and I don’t need to dig through archives of interviews where he states this, fuck, he doesn’t need to.
The true revolutionaries lead by example, and his example is, to put it simply, be yourself and spread some damn love. Spread love to others and spread it to yourself – which he does in bucket loads.
In a world full of magazine headlines and ad campaigns designed to make you feel like shit and fill that self-loathing void with material stuff, a guy like Kanye is a breath of fresh air.
He doesn’t give a shit about what you think – if he did he wouldn’t do what he does. And that’s the point, you shouldn’t care about what other people think either. Just do you and don’t let others’ perception of that affect how you go about your life.
Fuck the shackles of what other people perceive you as, if you are concerned with such things then I assure you, you will never break free of the psychological prison you have placed yourself in.
“we’re one race – the human race – one civilisation”“Don’t tell me about being likable,” he says in the clip. “We got a hundred years here, we’re one race – the human race – one civilisation. We’re a blip in the existence of the universe, and we constantly try to pull each other down, not doing things to help each other.”
He has a damn point. Kanye West doesn’t have a filter. I personally dig the shit out of that. Kanye calls himself a god. Hurr durr what an ego the guy has. Just stop and wake up to the fact that we are all gods. We are. We all shape our own lives, and self-belief is the first step to succeeding in whatever you want to do.
There’s an old saying: There are two men, one who says he can’t and one who says he can… both are usually right.
Now watch this – the full ‘rant’ – not just a cherry picked 30 second clip that makes him out to have lost his mind. Sit down, watch it, and feel the guy’s passion.
SORRY DAYTIME TELEVISION, sorry for the realness.
Lyrics to “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” (Released 2007)
I had a dream I can buy my way to heaven
When I awoke, I spent that on a necklace.
I told God I’d be back in a second,
Man it’s so hard not to act reckless.
To whom much is given much is tested.
Get arrested, guess until, they get the message.
I feel the pressure, under more scrutiny,
and what I do? Act more stupidly.
bought more jewelry, more Louis V, my momma couldn’t get through to me.
The drama, people suing me,
I’m on T.V. talking like it’s just you and me.
“I’m on T.V. talking like it’s just you and me”. Kanye spends a minuscule amount looking at Ellen. Instead he directs his gaze at you, the viewer. He is trying as hard as he can to reach as many people as he can on a personal level.
He believes his message is bigger than him. Subsequently causing a divide, those who feel it love him, those who are closed to it label him nuts.
I’m just saying how I feel man,
…
I guess the money should’ve changed him,
I guess I should’ve forgot where I came from.
[include_post id=”469195″]”I’m just saying how I feel man”. That’s all it is, he’s just being real. It’s pretty heavy that’s how scared we are of realness or even trying to attempt to reach it; we’ve gotta pull a brother down. Fuck that, don’t buy into it. Fuck the negative headlines.
I respect Kanye as an artist and a person. Back in 2004, Kanye West was already making a mark on the hip-hop world. He produced some dope tracks on Jay-Z’s album The Blueprint, and had some production credits on iconic shit like Fabolous’ ‘My Life’ and Talib Kweli’s ‘Get By’. Also in 2004, Kanye appeared on Def Poetry Jam, a spoken word poetry television series hosted by Mos Def.
“From Chicago, Illinois, please give it up for the future of hip hop, Kanye West!” shouts Mos Def as he introduces Kanye to a crowd that barely recognises him. A lot can change in a decade.
Still, even back then, Kanye was real. For a guy with such a supposedly huge ego to risk his rep by fake stuttering his way through a performance the way he did just proved the guy was always onto it.
His self confidence allowed him to play a character with none, delivering a perfectly hesitant rendition as the protagonist to ‘Self Conscious’ – and keep in mind he did this knowing it would be many people’s first impression of Kanye. Fuck the ego, let them think what they want. The art comes first. Watch it here and tell me you didn’t just gain more respect for the bloke.
…And fuck the besmirching headlines.
You can follow author David Allegretti on Twitter at @davidallegretti.
