Just imagine this morning being the people who made the deal for Kanye West to design clothes for The Gap. It’s a ten year deal. Did they keep the receipt?
This morning, Kanye had his 19th nervous breakdown. He gave a wild, “rambling” interview to Forbes.com in which he mapped out his presidential campaign. He has a new political party called “The Birthday Party” because “when we win, it’s everybody’s birthday.”
Fans of Kurt Vonnegut will sense a familiar feeling: this could be right out of one his novels. It’s hilarious and demented, and the character, Kanye now instead of Kilgore Trout, is out of his mind.
He tells Forbes that “he envisions a White House organizational model based on the secret country of Wakanda in “Black Panther,” that he’s never voted in his life, he thinks vaccines are “the mark of the beast,” and that “he’s ok with siphoning off Black votes from the Democratic nominee, thus helping Trump. “I’m not denying it, I just told you. To say that the Black vote is Democratic is a form of racism and white supremacy.”
So he’s crazy, completely crazy, which I know is a pejorative term, but he is crazy. He’s also admittedly bi-polar, which Forbes didn’t ask him about, and this seems to be a manic moment.
Should Forbes have published the interview knowing Kanye goes through these episodes? Especially without asking him if this was one? And what about Kim Kardashian? Does she take no responsibility here? Or is all publicity good publicity?
Or is Kanye crazy like a fox? His newest single is a dud. His last album, “Jesus is King,” has sold a total of 625,000 copies, mostly sales from streaming, which is not terribly remunerative. He has a mega deal with Adidas and a new line of his expensive sneakers coming shortly. Is this what we call a marketing plan? A lot of Kanye’s foot festishists are out of work and don’t have $220 to $1000 to spend on yet more kicks. Is this him rousing the base? Luckily, his Yeezy shoe company just received millions in government bailout money.
In my generation, we had Pat Paulsen, who knew for a while that his presidential campaign was a send up, a put on, until he crossed the line and seemed to believe what he was doing. Kanye is our Pat Paulsen.
