Quick! What’s the question that is on everyone’s lips right now? You’d think it would be “Who is going to win the 2008 Presidential Election?” or “Are gas prices ever going to go down?” or “Should I buy one of them cheaper iPhones?” or even “What’s up with the Jonas Brothers?”
Nope, the question that is one everyone’s lips right now — again — is “Why is Kanye West such an asshole?”
I think that I have the answer, and it might be not what you think.
His most recent round of assholitude (assholishness? assholiosity?) came after he made people wait for nearly 90 minutes for his appearance at last week’s Bonnaroo festival. He was supposed to go on at 8:15, but didn’t feel that it was going to be dark enough for his elaborate spaceship motif, so he pushed it back to 2:45, but he didn’t go on until 4:25. That’s 4:25 AM, BTW.
Now, delaying concerts is a dickhead move, not doubt, but it’s pretty ordinary: the type of thing that Axl Rose does in his sleep. And if we know anything about Kanye, it’s that he is not ordinary. I mean, his entire persona is based around the fact that he’s extraordinary.
But in this case, the ordinary people in the audience were pissed — 4:25 AM is the time where you’re thinking about throwing up, not the time where you want to watch an interplanetary alien rapper throwing down — and let him know by booing and throwing things on the stage, and, naturally, angry blog posts.
Kanye West was shocked, SHOCKED, that people were upset.
And posted about it on his blog.
Now, I don’t know where the idea came from to give celebrities their own blogs, but it was pure genius. There ain’t nothing in the whole world better in the entire universe than a celebrity with a blog. It’s hilarious: PR people spend tons of time and effort (and the celebrity’s own money!) trying to build a wall of good publicity around someone to have it all come crashing down via the celeb’s own unfiltered words.
It’s just too bad that Joan Crawford or Marlon Brando or Frank Sinatra or other legendarily “difficult” celebs didn’t have blogs back in their prime. Sinatra’s would have been awesome.
Perhaps even more awesome than the rant that Kanye went on, the rant that — among many other things — revealed exactly why he is an asshole.
And it ain’t because he’s a genius. I mean, he may very well be a genius, and the fact that everybody takes it for granted that he is a genius because he says he is a genius makes him — at the very least — a genius at making people think that he’s a genius.
But just because someone’s a genius doesn’t automatically mean that people are going to call him an asshole. Just ask Pablo Picasso. So that’s not why Kanye West is such an asshole. This is why:
… SOMETIMES I GO 2, 3 DAYS W/O SLEEP WORKING ON MY PERFORMANCE …
That’s it! You know how cranky you get when you don’t get a full night’s sleep. It’s a certifiable scientific fact and everything! Now multiply that by 72 hours with no sleep and you get sore loserdom, outsized arrogance, abject paranoia, making people wait to see you and — best of all — long, barely coherent blog posts.
As you can probably tell, I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a long time.
No matter what, Kanye fits into a grand tradition of genius (see, now I’m doing it) assholes: Bob Dylan had a whole movie based around how much of a titanic asshole he was in the mid-1960s; people who have done films with Mike Myers don’t speak to him for years afterwards; and I’ve already mentioned Axl Rose, who just a couple of days ago, had the frackin’ FBI visit the guy who did the latest leak of Chinese Democracy.
Awesome asshole act, Axl!
The question is how long Kanye can end up acting like this, until the tipping point is reached where the perception of his assholish behavior outweighs the perception of his genius.
Dylan and Sinatra escaped it, of course, without ever fully mellowing out, and the jury’s still out on Axl Rose. (Which is part of the reason that he’s delayed Chinese Democracy — he wants it to be better than his public image.) But Mike Myers, there’s an object lesson for Kanye, if the opening weekend grosses for The Love Guru are any indication.
If your art slips, just for a second, that may well be it.
I mean, look at Barry Bonds, still one of my all-time favorite baseball players, whose lack of employment this season is due less to the steroids scandal and more because of the perception that he’s just not worth the trouble in the clubhouse anymore.
At least, in Kanye’s case, there’s a cure. Just get some sleep, dude. And things will seem a whole lot better in the morning.
i think kanye’s blog made sense. organizers tried to put him on during the day originally. so many artists today are charging too much, like pearl jam, to just watch their old (talented) asses play guitars. at least with a kanye ticket, you’re seeing a big production, something visual. otherwise, stay at home and listen to PJ and kanye bootlegs of shows. i want to SEE a show if i’m paying out the ass for it. if i were him, i would want my fans to be blown away by my show and see all i paid for, to entertain them. if you’ve ever played a show, other bands going on late can ruin it for everyone, like PJ did for kanye and his fans. and “chinese democracy” is axl’s baby. he’s trying to make the best album ever which is impossible considering his voice is outdated and the music landscape has changed so much. but why shouldn’t he want us to wait and possibly download or buy the full artistic vision he’s been working on. it’s like us downloading only certain scenes from a movie prior to it being finished and in the context of the story. people don’t appreciate albums anymore because it’s rare that a label and artist actually worked hard on an album and not just a few singles and a bunch of filler. so we’ve grown too accustomed to thinking the artist has no right to share his/her art as they wanted. i think that’s inconsiderate if we respect their art and stop being kids trying to shake their presents on christmas eve.
David,
A couple of things. I would agree that the impetus for Kanye’s blog post made sense. He was being attacked for what happened and wanted to defend himself. But the execution was way wrong. Way way wrong.
I also agree that Axl has every right to be pissed that Chinese Democracy keeps getting leaked. But having the FBI call upon the blogger who leaked the most recent one? After it was taken down?
I think that both Kanye and Axl had unrealistic expectations of the actual situations (that month of going “back and forth” with the Bonnaroo folks should have been a huge red flag) (Chinese Democracy has been leaked so many times that nobody really cares that much any more about the latest leak), and then overreacted when things didn’t go exactly the way they planned.
If I’m paying out the ass for a show, I want to see an artist fully committed to the music, and whose love of the music they are playing is palpable and alive.
Finally, I think that it’s *always” been rare than an album is more than singles and filler.
The practice of being an asshole is referred to as “assholery”.
Kanye West doesn’t care about black people.
Actually, if he’s not sleeping, he should spend those 2-3 days on netiquette. ALL CAPS IS SOME TIRESOME CRAP!
Anyway, he’s talented and all, but waaaaay overrated.
Kanye west is such an asshole how dare you interrupt the beautiful TAYLOR SWIFT during her acceptance speech!!!!! YOU ARE SUCH AN ASSHOLE!!!!! I HATE YOU!!!!!
Kanye West sucks the sweat off a dead man’s balls.
Kanye West is truly an asshole, a self-absorbed overachieving asshole. He has SUCH a Napoleonic complex its ridiculous. Why do people even support him? He can’t (and doesn’t) sing, can’t rap, has NO talent. I for one have never listened to his shit, nor ever will. What he did to Taylor Swift was ridiculous. I gained alot of respect for Beyonce for her stylish and graceful apology to Taylor Swift by allowing her to come back onstage.
That little piece of shit needs to be treated just like a dog’s shit would: take out a paper towel, pick him up, and throw him away.
I catch some of his work on the internet. He can be an ass if he likes, as long as he doesn’t mind paying for it. Problem is he isn’t a normal, everyday, cut you off in traffic asshole- Kanye West is and Arch- Asshole: an egomaniacal, self-supremist, pillowbiting, Archasshole. There I said it.
Who can possibly read that crap of a blog, Send the Fool back to grammar school maybe he’ll learn to format a damn Paragraph..
Kanye West is the Kim Kardashian of the music world, a giant ass with no talent or class.
Still I blame MTV more. It is their tunnel visioned attention to only one genre of music that has created and enable the over bloated ego’s of West, Eminem, and Piffy, or Piddy, or whatever he calls himself these days.
And still, in spite of MTV’s best efforts, a teenage country girl won out. THAT is more than the spoiled brat Kanye can stand. After all in Kanye’s mind, it’s his sandbox, and he gets to decide who can play in it! ” IMA LET YOU FINISH OUT” he says, IMA LET YOU?!? Who the F@%k does this guy think he is?!!!
It’s your fault MTV. You created these Frankenstien monsters, now you can sleep with them. The rest of us will continue to seek out real music in spite of you.
He is an asshole because he thinks that his opinion is more valid than someone elses. Im no fan of Taylor Swift, but taking away her moment in the spotlight because HE doesnt think she deserved the award is utterly ridiculous. People dont agree with judges all the time – it doesnt give you the right to be a big D-bag. Back when Jethro Tull got the award for “best metal band” over metallica, much to the shock of Jethro Tull who obviously do not consider themselves a Metal Band – you didnt see Lars Ulrich up on the stand taking the mike away.
Kanye needs to just shut his yapper. The guy needs a thorough ass kicking.
the biggest asshole I’ve see this week, I won’t ever buy anything he does!
kayne west is like whale shit on the bottom of the ocean, he new cd is horrible! I am so done with him!
I get that people are really pissed at Kanye after last night’s latest outburst of assholery, but that doesn’t excuse racial slurs, OK?
Kanye is a pussy. He picks on 19 year old white girls. He needs his ass kicked.
The male country singers should group together beat the shit out of him. But you can’t beat the shit out of a pile of shit.
Kanye West is an ass.
Anyone that buys his music anymore is a STUPID ASS.
You want to get back at him. Easy. Don’t buy his music. Don’t give him another dime. Put him on the streets.
He is garbage so let him live on it.