Everyone knows Kanye West. He has been one of the most influential people in American culture over the past 20 years. West has released 11 studio albums with two in the past year, “Donda” and “Donda 2.” West has also been one of the most controversial public figures over this time. From claiming to be a god to saying that slavery in America was a choice, West is no stranger to controversy. However, over the past few months, West has come immense scrutiny for his actions and words about his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, and her new boyfriend, Pete Davidson.
I first want to talk about the release of his latest album, “Donda 2.” West released this album exclusively on his $200 Stem Player because he was tired of streaming services paying so little per stream of a song. I think this was probably one of the worst ways he could’ve released this album. Both Apple Music and Spotify pay less than one cent per stream. I like a major artist standing up to a streaming service, but this isn’t the way to fix this issue. West has a large enough following that if he wanted to, he could have created his own streaming service for artists that pay a fair amount per stream. West didn’t do this. Rather he put his album behind a $200 paywall, meaning that outside of his hardcore fanbase, this album wouldn’t really be heard.
This really limits who is going to listen to this album. If West released this album on streaming services, I would’ve listened to it. Now that it isn’t on a streaming service and I would have to listen to a bootleg version on YouTube I just don’t want to listen to it, and I know I’m not the only one to feel this way.
Normally a Kanye West album release would be pretty big news, but because of other thing that West is doing outside of music this wasn’t really talked about. In February of 2021 Kim Kardashian filed for divorce with West after years of marriage. The split, at least publicly, felt very amicable at first. Kardashian supported the release of West’s “Donda” in the summer of 2021, and it looked like the two were still friends. This was until the start of this year when Kardashian announced she was dating Pete Davidson. This has led West to go on multiple tirades on Instagram about the couple. West’s behavior has been stalkerish and abusive and borderline stalker behavior towards Kardashian and has insinuated on multiple occasions that he was going to hurt Davidson.
This was made very clear when West dropped a music video for his new song “Eazy.” This music video, which is in a Claymation style, depicts West kidnapping a someone that looks a lot like Davidson, then cutting his head off and growing roses around this disembodied head. He then cut down the roses, put them in the back of a truck bed and the music video ends with a frame that says, “EVERYONE LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER.”
Kanye West has a history of mental illness and is clearly dealing with issues right now, but that doesn’t excuse this behavior. He is showing abusive behavior and is borderline stalking his ex-wife and threatening her new boyfriend. Actor and comedian, D.L. Hughley put it best when he said, “The difference between him and the other dude who would get a restraining order on them is hundreds of millions of dollars.” West needs to take a step back from the spotlight and figure out these personal issues before someone ends up getting hurt.
Mark Warren can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @MarkWarren1832