Say you won't

As a fan of everything but 808s and Heartbreak, I sincerely hope Kanye West doesn't start taking his cues from "South Park":

"SOUTH PARK MURDERED ME LAST NIGHT AND IT'S PRETTY FUNNY. IT HURTS MY FEELINGS BUT WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM SOUTH PARK! I ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN WORKING ON MY EGO THOUGH. HAVING THE CRAZY EGO IS PLAYED OUT AT THIS POINT IN MY LIFE AND CAREER. I USE TO USE IT TO BUILD UP MY ESTEEM WHEN NOBODY BELIEVED IN ME. NOW THAT PEOPLE DO BELIEVE AND SUPPORT MY MUSIC AND PRODUCTS THE BEST RESPONSE IS THANK YOU INSTEAD OF "I TOLD YOU SO!!!" IT'S COOL TO TALK SHIT WHEN YOU'RE RAPPING BUT NOT IN REAL LIFE. WHEN YOU MEET LITTLE WAYNE IN PERSON HE'S THE NICEST GUY FOR EXAMPLE. I JUST WANNA BE A DOPER PERSON WHICH STARTS WITH ME NOT ALWAYS TELLING PEOPLE HOW DOPE I THINK I AM. I NEED TO JUST GET PAST MYSELF. DROP THE BRAVADO AND JUST MAKE DOPE PRODUCT. EVERYTHING IS NOT THAT SERIOUS. AS LONG AS PEOPLE THINK I ACT LIKE A BITCH THIS TYPE OF SHIT WILL HAPPEN TO ME. I GOT A LONG ROAD AHEAD OF ME TO MAKE PEOPLE BELIEVE I'M NOT ACTUALLY A HUGE DOUCHE BUT I'M UP FOR THE CHALLENGE. I'M SURE THE WRITERS AT SOUTH PARK ARE REALLY NICE PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE."

But how would he know? He's never met them. It would have been reasonable - and totally understandable - if Kanye had been angered instead of humbled by a very public and very childish takedown, the sort that South Park seems to specialize in (to this day, I'm still not sure why South Park has such a loyal following). Maybe it would be fair if Kanye simply wrote them off those writers as know-nothing assholes.

And why not? They did virtually the same thing to him.

Not for a second have I tried to draw any conclusions about Kanye's true character or personality based on his ego-fueled persona. Why would I? What would I really know of him?

Maybe I'm being unreasonable here, which is entirely possible since I'm a fan of his music and we're talking about a cartoon that makes its name by skewering celebrities. But to me, all the attention on Kanye's notoriously overinflated ego has almost always overlooked his compassion for the Katrina victims, his outspokenness against homophobia in hip-hop, and his philanthropic streak. In many ways, it seems like another way of calling him "uppity."

Even Kanye's public persona has many dimensions. Of course, South Park chose to focus on only one.

However, keep this in mind:

Now I could let these dream killers kill my self-esteem/Or use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams/I use it as my gas, so they say that I'm gassed/But without it I'd be last, so I ought to laugh.

And:

Interviewer: Do you think you’ve gotten to a place where there’s no self consciousness or insecurity?

Kanye West: Yeah. There’s no insecurity in the work I do, the outfits I put together, the beats I make, the raps I say.

If anything, Kanye is every bit the actor that he is the musician. Too bad South Park didn't even bother to figure that out or, if it did, chose to reacquaint itself with the low ground.

I just wish Kanye had turned the channel that night. Or just laughed it off.

Continue Reading »