Just when the world went back to ignoring Kanye West’s latest Twitter tantrum, the rapper continued his crass commentary by begging “white publications” to stop writing about “black music.”
West suggested that society is “designed for colored people to fail,” with music being one of the few ways we can secure success.
To classify Kanye West as an attention whore would be to sell short America’s most self-absorbed superstar.
West’s senseless social screeds are all part of his relentless efforts to plug his latest album.
And that’s laudable for a husband and a father of two.
However, there’s something painfully ironic about one of music’s most opinionated composers calling on opinion makers to sit down and shut up. Remember, it was from Kanye that we learned that George W. Bush does not care about black people.
But the bombastic rapper-producer-designer’s suggestion that music is one of the few avenues by which black people can or have historically reaped success only begins to highlight Kanye West’s ignorance about the history of successful black people in America.
More than a century before Sam Walton opened the first Walmart, Samuel T. Wilcox, in the 1850s, was a successful wholesale and retail grocer.
Stephen Smith and Robert Gordon were both born slaves. The two men never met, but they dominated a competitive coal industry in America, decades before the Civil War.
American history is rampant with inspiring stories of black men and women who achieved great success in real estate, cosmetics, life insurance, publishing, and so on.
West, who earned $72 million dollars over the least three years, is cash rich and has plenty of poor judgment.
And what about Kanye West’s own contributions to “black music”?
His latest album, The Life of Pablo, is teeming with all-too familiar misogynistic musings from the 38-year-old father of a little girl. After calling Taylor Swift a “bitch,” with whom he fantasizes about having sex, West raps on another song, “Whip that, bitch out. T-ts out, oh sh-t. My d-ck out, can she suck it right now? F-ck, can she f-ck right now? I done asked twice now. Can you bring your price down?”
West even treats his wife Kim Kardashian like less than a piece of meat on the song “Highlights.”
The last thing America needs right now is another lecture from a tone-deaf entertainer so blinded by a massive ego that he cannot see his own hypocrisy.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson.