Kanye West, now professionally known as “Ye,” is one of the most influential and iconic rappers of all time. Before turning his attention to the political world, he was previously known for his beloved albums, The College Dropout, Graduation, and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which fans immediately flocked to, making them quick classics. However, despite his success in the music industry, it seemed Kanye made a sharp turn in his career by shifting his focus to politics and social critiques, leading to disappointment for many fans and confusion for the rest of the world.
Backtracking slightly to 2018, West released his hit album Ye, hinting at a new version of himself. The album cover is iconic, featuring a picture of the Teton Range mountains with the words “I hate being Bi-polar. It’s awesome.” in neon green handwriting, showcasing his inner conflict with himself after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2016. Looking back, it’s extremely clear how much Kanye struggled with his mental health, his fame, his sound, and his path in life overall. Even before Ye’s bluntness, Kanye hinted at these struggles in his previous album, The Life of Pablo, with tracks like “I Love Kanye” and “FML.” “I Love Kanye” is an iconic track featuring only raw vocals, as Kanye West explores the various perspectives people have of him in the public eye. The track features many great lines, such as “I miss the old Kanye” and “I hate the new Kanye… The always rude Kanye, spaz in the news Kanye,” displaying his awareness of all the outlandish things he does, which people heavily criticize him for. However, he ends the track with “And I love you like Kanye loves Kanye,” conveying his deflection of the public’s critiques as he is confident enough in himself to ignore them.
After making slight changes to his sound and dropping tiny hints at what’s really going on, Kanye released Ye, which took a very straightforward approach to his struggles. With tracks like “I Thought About Killing You,” “Yikes,” and “Ghost Town,” the record has a very dark tone. This was the era when Kanye attempted to accept his diagnosis and reflect on how it had impacted his actions. He opens up about his struggle with addiction on “Yikes,” which he continues to battle with today. Self-medicating is a widespread coping mechanism among people with bipolar disorder, so it’s no surprise he’s always been seeking an escape. The album alludes to his mental state, with some songs highlighting his newfound sense of freedom, while others reveal his need for change.
Regardless of his diagnosis, Kanye’s message to the world has always been about self-expression and not caring what others think, as he continues to challenge social standards, even for a celebrity. Back in 2016, he began supporting Donald Trump during and after his campaign, stating that Trump’s win “proves that anything is possible in America,” displaying his reason for admiration. Fans generally disapproved of Kanye’s outspoken support, and it’s clear that he knew it would be controversial as he said things like “[this] represents y’all can’t bully me” while wearing a Make America Great Again hat on TMZ Live. However, his true intentions were to grab everyone’s attention, not to give life to Trump’s mission. He even said that he was simply “doing something everybody tells you not to do” in order to “make America great in [his] own way,” which shows a common theme of psychological reactance in Kanye.
Psychological and physical reactance is Kanye’s way of breaking out of social norms and expressing his creativity without limits. Still, his actions have started to get out of hand. The National Institutes of Health describes reactance as “the motivation to regain a freedom after it has been lost or threatened,” which makes sense as Kanye uses criticism as motivation for whatever he will do next. After supporting Trump, Kanye declared he would also be running for president in the 2020 election. His desire to make the impossible happen drives him as a liberating force. Kanye craves creative freedom and doesn’t care about the consequences because he wants to make the public think about why they have those reactions. Kanye is all about individuality, and seeing people follow the crowd is a setback for our generation in his eyes, so he quite literally attempted to take matters into his own hands.
As a figure in the public eye, he wants to use his platform to influence in a new way. Although we’ve seen him use abnormal strategies to get his message of freethinking across, his actions truly began to cross a moral line for many. In 2022, Kanye was dropped from his collaboration with Adidas due to his increasingly anti-Semitic remarks online and in public. This has continued even today, and to many fans, it seemed as though he was losing his mind and, even more so, losing his sense of who he wanted to be. This wasn’t the producer and rapper we looked up to in the early 2000s, and it was apparent that this all had to be some kind of persona that Kanye was creating. In a recent podcast interview, Kanye attributed his offensive behavior to yet another diagnosis: autism. He brought up his reactance once more, stating, “The constant feeling of not being in control spun me out of control,” which led to all his heinous acts as he tried to outdo himself every time. Showing support for such an immoral group was Kanye’s way of showing that he truly doesn’t care what anybody thinks, and he won’t hesitate to utilize his free will to get his message across. He wanted to grab the public’s attention and make them question everything they thought they knew.
Although anybody else probably would’ve gone about this in a drastically different way, did we ever think Kanye would do something in typical fashion? Definitely not. He’s always been a black sheep in the music industry, and he uses that to his advantage. There’s no denying his talent, but it’s almost like that doesn’t matter anymore. Fans can no longer distinguish the art from the artist, as he created songs and merchandise that were just as bad, if not worse, than his anti-Semitic remarks online. However, with all the things he’s done in mind, it’s impossible for me to ignore the elephant in the room that everyone seems to be overlooking: Kanye is African-American, not white. How can he claim to be supporting someone who would’ve wanted him dead 80 years ago? He can’t. He doesn’t. He simply sees himself represented in these public figures who get painted as villains in history.
Kanye has always been an artist, and his parallels to Hitler make odd sense when you look at their pasts. It’s commonly stated that Hitler wanted to be a painter, but was rejected from the Academy of Fine Arts twice before switching his focus to politics. Now, although Kanye wasn’t rejected from school, he still ended up transferring to Chicago State University to study English, like his mother, before dropping out to pursue his music career. It’s clear that both Kanye and Hitler had very creative and passionate minds, and they sought many outlets to express themselves, which may be one of the slim similarities that Kanye admires. The difference is that Kanye succeeded everywhere he went. He was even awarded an honorary doctorate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before they eventually revoked it in 2022 due to his offensive statements. I found this ludicrous, as it made no sense to award him with such a prestigious degree, claiming that he earned it through his success, and then just take it back. Had he gone the typical route and gone to college and followed the crowd, it would have been impossible to revoke his hard-earned degree, regardless of his future actions. Nonetheless, I doubt Kanye even cares.
Another strange parallel stems from their relationships with their mothers. It’s said that Hitler decided to leave his hometown and follow his dreams after the death of his mother in 1908. However, as mentioned previously, that didn’t end well and resulted in him pursuing an alternate path. This is similar to how Kanye grew up. Kanye was raised by his mother, Donda, and it’s clear that her opinion meant everything to him. However, things went downhill when his mother unexpectedly passed away in 2007, right at the beginning of Kanye’s rise to fame. Kanye’s 2022 documentary, Jeen-Yuhs, showcased the relationship between him and his mother, detailing the lengths of her humility. Donda always tried to keep Kanye grounded, and many fans are left wondering where he would be today if his mother were still alive. His music took a quick turn after this, and it seemed to be the beginning of the end for such an amazing star.
I grew up listening to Kanye West, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop. As someone who also grew up with a bipolar father, I tend to see Kanye in a more parasocial light. I see his passion, I see the motivation behind his actions, and I see his pain. I will never see him as anything other than a genius, regardless of his mistakes, and I wish more fans took that approach. It’s just as arrogant to assume his intentions are bad because, at the end of the day, it’s all parasocial, and it’s all part of his plan. Goodnight.
