Rapper Kanye West addressed last week’s racially motivated mass murder in Charleston, South Carolina during a guest performance at a concert in Atlanta on Saturday, and made one thing clear: he has no idea where Charleston is.
During his set at Hot 107.9’s Birthday Bash, the rapper went off the cuff for a freestyle rap performance, and got low to the ground to talk about the state of America’s current racial climate, which apparently warranted dozens of N-words and a career parallel.
West’s slightly off-key singing had fans roaring as he crouched low to the stage, and being the egocentric figure he is, Kanye decried his own persecution, and connected the African Methodist Episcopal Church of Charleston massacre with his own career struggles.
“I always knew they’d try to tear me down,” he sang, before rapping, “don’t let them make you believe that I’m crazy.”
Accompanied by a piano, Kanye rapped “See, that’s the magic of racism, it works on itself, we hate each other, screw each other, kill each other when we can’t kill nobody else.”
He continued: “See that’s the magic of lack of resources, it works on itself. Five-hundred n*ggas getting pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-popped, and North Carolina didn’t help.”
Kanye does know how to put on a heck of a show, though.
“I am God’s vessel. But my greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live,” he once said.
Perhaps as “God’s vessel” and a proud “non-reader of books,” our generation’s “Picasso” has also avoided opening an atlas in his 38 years, and that is a shame.
All lives matter. So do details.
Watch a clip of Kanye’s performance above.