Kanye West is easily one of the most divisive and contradictory players in the game today. So divisive in fact, most can’t even agree on what game Kanye’s actually playing. Music, fashion, Kapitali$ing on the Karda$hian Kid$, or simply rick-rolling young blondes at award shows; as the game changes, so does Chameleon Kanye. *cough Yeezus.* Undeniably, most have struggled to reconcile his often-outlandish public persona with his force as a humble yet boundary-breaking music producer. Yes, I did just write humble and Kanye in the same sentence.
Almost exactly a year ago, in what was a candid-as-Kanye-gets interview with The New York Times, West explored the various influences and inspirations for his latest album, Yeezus. Along with ensuring that henceforth no commentator (myself included) could mention Kanye West without including some scathing reference to his boundless adoration for the late Steve Jobs (man, he really likes him), The Times interview also delivered him an incredible amount of flack for peremptory insistences like “I am so credible and so influential and so relevant that I will change things” and like “Yeah, respect my trendsetting abilities. Once that happens, everyone wins. The world wins; fresh kids win; creatives win; the company wins.”
A year on from citing Le Corbusier’s lamp as his greatest influence and declaring NBA commissioner David Stern an artist, Kanye’s gone and got hitched to an impeccably-dressed pot of vanity in front of a impeccably well-curated wall of flowers, has graced the cover of US Vogue with said pot of vanity and baby North, been declared by Lou Reed as “the only person who’s out there really doing something,” and collaborated with James Blake on the Brit's upcoming album. Having been described by Justin Vernon from Bon Iver as “otherwordly,” and securing the lead role in Instagram’s Most Liked Picture of all time, the West that walked out on stage yesterday at the Cannes Lions Festival to talk all things techno-culture, is a far cry away from West that ranted for 8 minutes straight on Jimmy Kimmel mere months ago. Despite spinning the same bullshit about design with utopian aspirations, and the hard-knock life of “rentable” celebrities who face public “lashings,” Yeezus appeared a changed man. Cool, calm and collected.
Here’s why.
Firstly, Kanye’s started wearing skirts
“Men wearing skirts goes back hundreds of years, but never caught on in America. We have been brainwashed into thinking this is some sort of feminine act. One of the most masculine things you can do is put on a skirt.”
Ever knowledgable Kanye knows that happy genitals equal happy people, right? So in an act invested with moralistic intension and a desire to de-brainwash the poor un-manly men of America, Kanye’s reinvented the wheel with his high end man-skirt. Taking the lead, not that he’d admit it though, from Marc Jacob’s signature kilt, Kanye’s ensuring that as summer descends on LA LA Land he, along with anyone looking to purchase a man-skirt for a mere $US250-$US5000, will have easy, breezy and carefree junk in an environment designed for optimum mobility and fresh air cultivation. Making people happy in the pants, or should I say skirt, always makes you feel good about yourself so it's no wonder Yeezy is all smiles.
When he’s not wearing skirts, he’s wearing track pants
After an on-going saga with Nike, in which the brand failed to promise Yeezus royalties to his Yeezy trainers, or deliver future collections for the designer collaboration, a now Baby-Daddy in all their three-stripe, dollar $ign goodness.
“The old me without a daughter might of taken the Nike deal, because I just love Nike. But the new me, with a daughter, takes the Adidas deal, because I have royalties and I have to provide for my family.”
It’s humbling to know that worries regarding financial security keep even the Kim-ye clan up at night. So, with a new collaboration under his belt, and well on the way to getting his money “up to the next level. Because it ain’t on Jay Z level yet, it ain’t on Diddy yet,” it seems clear all Kanye of by-gone days really needed was a few good nights' sleep.
He even designed the blanket under which he’s been sleeping
?
He found time to stop and smell the roses
With Annie Leibovitz pulling out from her role as official Kim-ye wedding photographer mere days before the wedding, Kanye was still determined to have Annie-Leibovitz-like photography for his big day. While this meant he enlisted the help of a 19 year old, then-unknown photographer, it also meant he spent “like four days,” perfecting the palate of a flower-filled photo of their wedding for Instagram. It’s a hard job, but someone’s got to do it.
He’s become a family man
During The New York Times interview, Kanye was particularly tight-lipped when it came to discussing family matters, stating “I don’t want to explain too much into what my thoughts on, you know, fatherhood are, because I’ve not fully developed those thoughts yet. I don’t have a kid yet.” And explaining that when baby North did come, it would be his kid, “not America’s.” A Vogue cover and one highly anticipated, over-the-top wedding later and my, my, how times have changed. Mother-in-law Kris Jenner sat in the audience for Kanye’s stint on the Cannes stage, while Kanye himself declared he “can't be with any girl but Kim because that's the girl that I look at her pictures the most and get turned on the most.” What did I say about happy genitals equalling happy people?
And finally, his genius has been credited in app-form
In yet another social initiative to beautify the world, Kanye lent his mug to web programming group, The Free Art and Technology, for an application that allows you to put Yeezy’s face all over your desktop’s icon dock. Downloadable here, Kanye must be feeling pretty good about bringing some Kanye-tinted beauty to desktops everywhere.
