To say Kanye West has been a topic of discussion over the past two weeks would be an understatement. The Chicago native hasn’t just been a topic of discussion within pop culture over the past week, he is the discussion within pop culture over the past two weeks. In late April, Kanye reappeared on Twiter to the excitement of many fans. For the first few days, West’s feed was full of flashbacks to good moments in his life, “Kanye-isms” and a few album release dates. Like most good things, Kanye’s innocent return to Twitter didn’t last too long. The Life of Pablo emcee caught fire from a number of sides when he decided to tweet support for Right-wing personality, Candace Owens and the current President of the United States. To be specific, he noted that he liked how Owens thought about the world and that he and Trump were alike because they both shared “dragon energy”.
I love the way Candace Owens thinks
— ye (@kanyewest) April 21, 2018
While the majority of the world was still trying to figure out what in the hell Kanye meant by “dragon energy”, Kanye took his affiliation with Trump one step further when he revealed he had gotten a signed hat from Trump. In the days that followed, Kanye released his first single in over a year, “Ye vs. The People”, on which he attempted to address why he had aligned himself with the Trump administration.
You don't have to agree with trump but the mob can't make me not love him. We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don't agree with everything anyone does. That's what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.
— ye (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018
To top it all of, Kanye released two interviews yesterday in which he sat down with Charlamagne Tha God and TMZ to address everything that has happened in his life over the past two years. While pieces of the interview garnered insight to his relationship with Jay-Z and how he was continuing to deal with the loss of his mother, other parts of the interview proved to be more outlandish and downright absurd.
"When you hear about slavery for 400 years, for 400 years? That sound like a choice. You was there for 400 years, and it's all of y'all?"
—@KanyeWest https://t.co/PqTvPFh5RX pic.twitter.com/s7XsJDEds9— Rap-Up (@RapUp) May 1, 2018
By far the most absurd portion of the two interviews was when Kanye said, “When you hear about slavery for 400 years … for 400 years? That sounds like a choice.” The comment was ignorant, but with all things ignorant #BlackTwitter takes it and makes it into something hilarious. As a result, Kanye’s dumb comments gave the world the hashtag that keeps on giving, #IfSlaveryWasAChoice.
When you win plantations got talent #IfSlaveryWasAChoice pic.twitter.com/fyH38edMNR
— janet (@_janetsplanet) May 2, 2018
Colonizer: “GET UP AND GET TO WORK!”
Me: pic.twitter.com/KK6bxQ5q3H
— X (@XLNB) May 2, 2018
When masa holds a talent show #IfSlaveryWasAChoice pic.twitter.com/12h1Kj7oEk
— Khadi Don (@KhadiDon) May 2, 2018
Following the backlash from the TMZ interview, West tried to clean up his statement by tweeting, “My point is for us to have stayed in that position even though the numbers were on our side means that we were mentally enslaved.” West’s tweets were too little and they are too late. Is Kanye’s career beyond salvageable at this point?