Music
Kanye West has recently come under fire for defending Sean “Diddy” Combs in a Twitter rant. That is not the first time the “Heartless” rapper has done that.
Kanye West has recently come under fire for defending Sean “Diddy” Combs in a Twitter rant. That is not the first time the “Slide” rapper has done that. He wrote a song where he likened himself to Diddy in addition to several other controversial celebrities. Despite this provocation, the song still hit No. 1 and so did its parent album.
Kanye West wants President Donald Trump to free Diddy
Diddy has become an industry pariah in recent months, with many in the hip-hop community reevaluating his legacy. Of course, West is never one to do the expected — usually to the detriment of himself and everyone else. On Twitter, the “Black Skinhead” rapper asked President Donald Trump to free Diddy. West and Trump have a longstanding association. Billboard reports Trump has not commented on the Diddy case.
West’s comments echo lines from his song “Carnival,” where he compares himself to other controversial stars. In the song, West raps “Now I’m Ye-Kelly, b, now, I’m Bill Cosby, b**** / Now, I’m Puff Daddy rich, that’s ‘Me Too’ me rich / Why she say she sucked my d***? / Then she say she ain’t sucked my d*** / She gon’ take it up the a, like a ventriloquist / I mean since Taylor Swift, since I had the Rollie on the wrist / I’m the new Jesus, b****, I turn water to Cris / This for what they did to Chris, they can’t do s*** with this.”
Why is he rapping about R. Kelly, Bill Cosby, and Diddy?
What was West trying to say with “Carnival?” Well, most of the song is an unsubtle song about sex. However, he takes time out of the sex talk to compare himself to R. Kelly, Bill Cosby, and Diddy while also defending Chris Brown. It seems that now, more than ever, West is leaning into his terrible image such that he relates to some of the most hated entertainers alive.
The song is also braggadocious. West isn’t just boasting that he has money or a fancy watch. No, the Yeezus star is bragging that he can be unrepentantly, unrelentingly awful all the time without losing a single fan. He can compare himself to other pariahs, rope Taylor Swift into his drama again, and even blasphemously proclaim himself the new Jesus Christ and get away with all of it. It’s not surprising that some music critics don’t even want to engage with his work anymore. The simple fun of “Good Life” era West is dead and gone.
Kanye West’s ‘Carnival’ took over the world anyway
Despite all the controversy surrounding the song (and West in general), “Carnival” still became a No. 1 single. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a week, lasting on the chart for 19 weeks in total. The track appeared on Vultures 1, an album-length collaboration between West and Ty Dolla Sign. The record was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for two weeks, lasting on the chart for 20 weeks in total. Since the success of that album, West and Ty Dolla Sing have released Vultures 2. Vultures 3 seems to be on the way, although West has announced and then discarded many projects over the years.
In one short decade or so, West went from being universally loved to becoming one of the most divisive artists on the planet. We can only wonder what he will do next.
