Just a year after this happened and it seems like everybody has forgotten about it. Yea he lost his adidas partnership but nowadays, he's been a welcomed surprise guest at Travis shows, I'm hearing his songs being popped off on in clubs and parties, and he's been going viral on TikTok with tons of praise and no criticism or mention of him being a Nazi in the comments
Is it Americans having the memory of a goldfish? Americans not really hating Hitler/Nazis/anti-semitism that much? Kanye's music is just too good to ignore? Americans just loving to deepthroat and worship anybody that's famous?
Kanye antisemitism
I sleep
Ukraine neo nazis
I give several billion dollars
people show solidarity with Palestinians as they are being genocided by Israel
REAL ANTISEMITISM?!?!?!
SS soldier given multiple standing ovations in Canadian parliament
Eh who cares?
College student waves a Palestine flag
REAL SHIIIT
People will forgive a lot that doesnt personally affect them in exchange for treats.
Completely expected of course, but I just thought that the first thing people would think of when they hear a Kanye song is that he's a Nazi and it'd ruin the experience but ig not?
I can't even listen to Pinkerton since 15 anymore because of the orientalist and incel themes, much less Kanye and his Nazi praise
Yeah, I recently realized how "ick" parts of it are, so idk if I can listen to it and enjoy it anymore. But it was their best album!
I just didn't question it or really think about it, hearing it mentioned made me "hmm...that WAS weird."
Same kinda process with "In the Aeroplane over the Sea" lmao
Wild how he still has a career, I'll say that much, he literally praised Hitler and only lost one partnership.
Followed by a "uhhhhhhhh it was our staffers!" when anyone criticizes it.
Something I've been thinking a lot about recently myself, but you have to understand Kanye is not just another hugely popular artist but possibly the most influential hip-hop artist of the past 20 years, and I've seen some (myself included) rank him as one of the greatest hip-hop producers of all time, up there with the likes of Pete Rock, Preemo and J Dilla.
You also have to understand hip-hop and where Kanye is coming from. Listen to pretty much any hip-hop song from the 90s (esp. from NYC) and it'll be littered with five percenter slang, which itself comes out of the NOI. I mean the five percenters were there from the start, at the Kool Herc parties. Both groups are...not the best when it comes to Jews. This is how you get Chuck D praising Farrakhan in multiple songs, Ice Cube going on antisemitic rants on twitter, and Jay-Z having a ton of really sus lines about Jews in a bunch of songs, just to name a few things off the top of my head. The Five percenter slang was so intertwined with hip-hop in the 90s that people were unknowingly using the slang w/o being five percent themselves. You probably know some terms yourself (cypher, word is bond, droppin science). Kanye's not a five-percenter (he's very serious about his christianity), but he started his career in the mid-90s when this stuff was unavoidable. He also jumpstarted his career with rocafella - I don't think Jay-z is five percent (though he's worn a five percenter chain, though I think that's more a nod to the culture than anything), but I know Beanie Sigel is some type of muslim, not sure about Memphis Bleek though I know Sean Price (his cousin) was definitely on some five percent shit, Freeway was five percent I think? - I'm not gonna analyze everyone in the rocafella camp, my point is five percent stuff was extremely prevalent in hip-hop in the era Kanye was coming up, and although its influence sorta started to die as Kanye's career progressed, he was undoubtedly exposed to the five percent stuff and therefore a lot of antisemitism.
Another way antisemitism found its way into hip-hop is the fact that it was created by Black communities in NYC - where there were some very real tensions between Black and Jewish communities, esp. in Brooklyn.
So I hope this doesn't come off as excusing Kanye, but I think it's important to note that Kanye's antisemitism can't be explained away by saying "Kanye's an idiot" or "Kanye's an asshole" because it does come from somewhere as hip-hop has had an antisemitism problem for a long time, and Kanye is an extension of that. Kanye's antisemitism is notable though because instead of staying as just basic hip-hop antisemitism, it got mixed with and amplified by the new right who want to parade Kanye around as a sort of darling of the right. So you have Kanye going on Alex Jones and meeting with Nick Fuentes - parading around the token Black man to support their views, not new on the right.
So anyway, the reason he hasn't been canceled is probably some combination of 1) a lot of his fans are extremely apolitical (or worse, 4chan nazis - MBDTF, Yeezus and TLOP are loved by /mu/), 2) antisemitism was a part of hip-hop before Kanye, and a lot of old heads really do have extremely sus opinions on the Jews that make Kanye's beliefs...not that notable (what's notable is Kanye's antisemitism being lifted out of the hip-hop landscape and mixed up with the Nick Fuentes/Alex Jones/neo-nazi right), and 3) it's extremely difficult to extricate Kanye from the modern day hip-hop landscape - as I say above, his impact cannot be understated. He not only fundamentally changed the trajectory of hip-hop, but, in terms of production, he's also one of the best to ever do it.
I don't know where /mu/ is at this point, at the point I stopped using 4chan (probably also around 7 years ago lol) I was pretty exclusively on /mu/ and it seemed like it was the least nazi-infested board. Not sure where it is now, but just meant to say there is a large portion of Kanye's current fanbase at least adjacent to that crowd if not outright part of it. Tbh even when /mu/ was the "least nazi-infested board" though I wouldn't say it was "good," just tolerable when I was fiending for some new music from one of those sharethreads.
And yeah it is sort of funny (sad) that Kanye pretty much ended the stranglehold gangsta rap had over hip-hop, made it acceptable for rappers to show emotion and sensitivity and helped to elevate a lot of conscious hip-hop to the mainstream, yet what he'll probably be remembered for is antisemitism, his weird right-wing antics, and stalking Kim Kardashian. Not excusing it, but damn man, you could've retired at the top of the world with a hell of a legacy behind you and you go and do this.
The worst part is that the bigotry only correlated with his decline in quality of releases
College dropout -> TLOP is easily one of the GOAT album runs. Imagine if he just dropped dead there or disappeared from the media forever somehow
I’ve always thought he should’ve just settled down with Kim. I don’t think anyone thought that marriage would last, but they actually stayed together for a while and went through a lot, from where I am it seemed like an okay marriage (though I’m not up on celebrity gossip, maybe they actually had a ton of problems). Should’ve just settled down and raised his kids.
I’m actually not a huge fan of his post-mbdtf output, save for bound 2. Mbdtf is his peak for me, though I know yeezus and tlop have huge fanbases. Kids with ghosts I know a lot of people also enjoy. Daytona (pusha t) also gets a lot of accolades, though I’ve never really listened. But yeah I agree, his work in his later career gets extremely hit or miss, with probably more misses than hits.
Anyone who still goes on 4chan at all post 2016 is, at the very least, an extremely sus individual
This is the only comment worth reading in this entire thread. I’m not a big hip hop person, but I was loosely aware of most of what you’re talking about here, mostly because I’m a music history nerd kinda. I always saw the praising of nazism and Hitler from Kanye was most likely not a true heart of hearts admiration of those things, but the antisemitism in general is not an out of the blue phenomenon for him or other hip hop artists of that era. Doesn’t really matter because even if he was just trying to get out of some contracts there’s a million ways to do it other than getting on the air and saying you love Nazis. Now I just laugh when I hear flashing lights, which is now a problematic fave.
He was a super mainstream musician for almost 2 decades before his chud transformation, the more likely reason is that his audience is so broad it includes people who aren't conscientious enough to care. If he started getting into nazi shit much earlier (like the mid 2000s, when he already had big hits but his style of hip hop was still kind of "alternative" compared to the rest of the industry) that might have ended his career.
Mel Gibson seemed to. Like yeah he wasn't literally run out of town or anything but he went from a really big star to doing behind the scenes shit only almost overnight.
I think the general public thinks of Kanye as a bizarre performance artist who has severe mental illnesses. They heard Kanye saying outrageously racist things and simply nodded and said "Yep, that's old wacky Kanye up to his shenanigans again"
I think that has a lot to do with it. It's part that and part people assuming its mental illness, which probably does play a role. That doesn't mean he deserves a platform though.
People don't give a shit about anti semitism.
They just care about the "antisemitism" of their opponents when they do things like call for not bombing hospitals
Also he hasn't made any good music in a while
Also he hasn't made any good music in a while
Donda was a beautiful album. Ghost town and kids see ghosts were from 2018
I would classify 2018 as a while ago those are thebones I was thinking about, kids see ghost especially.
Americans were never really anti-nazi, there are photos of marches in support of Germany before Pearl Harbor. Even worse, we still live amongst millions of people sympathetic to fascist movements. Why would fascists cancel Kanye?
What would he get cancelled for? It's not like he criticized israel or said anything in support of Palestinians.
It just means his remaining fans are Nazi sympathizers, and deserve to be called out and treated as such in public.
His music is wildly overrated so no excuse there. The whole question of the greatest of all time should have never left 5th grade.
Nazism can't be blamed on mental health so no excuse there.
The truth is he is functionally a clown but the clown isn't just him as a person it's his entire brand. The idea of a Black nazi is actually quite comfortable in the American mind. He is the vindication clown. He is the reflection of Taylor Swift who is the validation/victimization clown.
His music is wildly overrated so no excuse there
Okay let's not get carried away here
The truth is he is functionally a clown but the clown isn't just him as a person it's his entire brand. The idea of a Black nazi is actually quite comfortable in the American mind. He is the vindication clown. He is the reflection of Taylor Swift who is the validation/victimization clown.
celebrities as specialized clowns is actually a pretty good way to frame the american incarnation of bread and circus.
How do you cancel a celebrity that gives no fucks, has a shitton of money, and built their public presence in an apolitical genre of pop hip-hop? Hope that your X-comment (formerly tweet) changes the mind of millions of people who don't really give a shit about anything outside the sphere of themselves? Sending mean X-comments (formerly tweets) to kanye's X account (formerly twitter) mailbox?
Unless you got a way to personally contact the dude and can d20 nat20 persuade him to knock that shit off, you might as well just shrug and say "that's the way it is" and move on to find something more productive to do with the time you got in this life. Maybe go take a nice walk, donate to some cause you like if you're able, put ketchup packets under those little bumper things under the toilet seat in your bosses personal toilet, spend an hour after eating a meal and read something you've been putting off, make a post on your favorite website wondering why some dipshit celeb with nazi fantasies is still openly bumbling around and have some loser reply to your post with an insufferable long comment that reads like they're the kind of person that gets a feeling of living high on the hog from making grandiose run-on sentences that never really seem to end.
fact is most folks do not have the time to keep track of what celebrities are cancelled for what reason, and rich folks dont tend to give a shit
He did talk extensively about how he "loooooves Hitler", so . . .
A lot of his early stuff was very much political though, which makes his fan base being as apathetic as they are really strange
Americans not really hating Hitler/Nazis/anti-semitism that much?
