"On the field I'm over-reckless on my Odell Beckham, 2020 I'mma run the whole election"
This aged well, didnt it?
As we cross 4 years of one of Kanye's most celebrated album "The Life of Pablo" from where the above line is taken from has aged very well. No matter where you see, all hip/hop fans are discussing Kanye's Presidency run. During the MTV VMA awards in 2016 the rapper turned fashion mogul announced that he is voting for the Oval Office and will participate in the Presidential Campaign of 2020. Now, for everybody who knows a little bit about him knows that most of the things that he says are just words said in the heat of the moment. Nobody really expected him to actually run for presidency, so his official announcement was an absolute shock to everybody.
Born on the 8th of June 1977 in Atlanta, Georgia the only child of an English professor and one of the first ever black PhotoJournalist. His parents got divorced when he was just 3 years old and he was moved to Chicago. He was always a creative child, be it drawing or music or dance. He soon took to creating soundtracks for games through which his passion for music emerged.
He dropped out of college, and soon with the help of his mother, Kanye started producing for artists like Jay-Z, Common and Pusha-T. Kanye always wanted to rap. But he never got the opportunity. So finally, in 2004 he released his first album named "The College Dropout". This album featured artists like Jammie Foxx and won the Best Rap Album of the year and from there, everything was a supersonic flight for Kanye. With albums like Yeezus, Late Registration, Life of Pablo, Kanye has delivered absolute gems of musical genius. His songs talk about everything he faced himself, everything he saw happening and that gives it soul. But his best album to date is “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.” Releasing in the aftermath of his infamous incident with Taylor Swift at the VMA awards, Kanye outdid himself. One year hiatus, one song that features 10 artists and millions of happy fans. He’s one man who has all the power. He’s a musical genius who revels in controversy and shows no sign of stopping.
With great power comes great responsibility, but in Ye's case, with great power comes great controversy. He never is one to shy away from a fight, or a tweet, or anything else really. The first and biggest of many controversies was the one with Tay Tay. Interrupting her speech and declaring that Beyonce's video was the best, her really does like to declare things. Then his twitter feud with Wiz Khalifa. Calling himself a God. Releasing a music video with naked wax statues of many "Famous" celebrities like Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian, George W Bush, Donald Trump, etc. To saying he is not concerned about racism - more on the lines of how it a choice.
But all of this doesn't even compare to the most incredibly hilarious declaration by Kanye till date. Running for President!
In case you didn't know, The United States has a bi-party system in which traditionally either the Democrats or the Republicans win. The current party in power is the Republican party with Donald Trump as the president. Kanye, being the vocal person he is, has always been a Trump supporter and was actually proud of it. Speaking in his rallies to wearing the red hat of "Make America great Again" and agreeing to Trump's philosophies and ideologies. Donald Trump thought it was "interesting" that Kanye wanted to run for president.
Kanye, as of July 16th 2020, is officially a candidate for presidency. He has a third party which he named the "Birthday Party" because according to him, "Everyday after I win will be like a birthday party." In his Forbes interview, Kanye said : “I would run as a Republican if Trump wasn’t there. I will run as an independent if Trump is there.” This pretty much gives everyone an idea about where his political beliefs actually lie. Somewhere in the middle...either he’s a true centralist or his political views are so idiosyncratic that we cannot correctly label them. I personally had to read a lot and still could make no sense of what he actually wants. He has been known to speak about a lot of topics, and I mean a lot of topics.
Kanye has very strong "anti-abortion" views. He himself said in one of his rallies that his mother was about to abort him and he almost aborted his baby daughter. He then went to say that the government should give people a million dollars per baby they have. Then realising the idiocracy in his statement he changed it to "No More Plan B," the emergency contraceptive pill, but instead a "Plan A." He proposed $50,000 per year to help women take care of a child, but added, "It takes a village, no matter how much money you have. Society has been set up for single mothers to never have a village."
During the Coronavirus pandemic and the race to make a vaccine, Kanye made a statement saying "they want to put chips inside of us, they want to do all kinds of things, to make it where we can't cross the gates of Heaven." He apparently wants to model the White House like Wakanda from Marvel's Black Panther. He was also banned from entering the ballots of two states for fraudulent signatures. He really doesn't stop, does he.
But all that was the negative side of ideologies. He donated 2 million dollars for the George Floyd protests and paid for his daughter's college. He also has plans for the economic and educational development of the country. Kanye also knows how to get the niche, younger generation's attention. He wants to legalise cannabis in the country. Let's just say these all are the positive points of his delightful presidential campaign!
So after going through his ideologies and his life up until till this point, what can we take away from Kanye?
His entire life he has been applauded or trolled. But still he remains one of the greatest of all time in the music industry. He is a promising rookie in the fashion industry. Some people know what they are good at and make good of it. And some people want to try everything to only see if they succeed or fail. Kanye, in my opinion, is the latter. His life's journey has more twists and turns than a roller coaster. But his presidential campaign will be revolutionary. It will become a case study on doing what you want to and never shying away or feeling scared. No matter how idiotic it may seem to people. You can call all this a tactic to build hype for a new album or dub it to be a way of staying relevant in the news or see that it is a man truly carving out his political and musical ideologies into the masses.
A lot of questions come into one's mind regarding this rash decision, so to say, would this decision put his career in jeopardy? If he actually does become the President, what in the world will he do? And for anyone who is a fan of his music, will he still make songs? The answers to these questions will reveal themselves with time. Until then, all we can do is sit back and enjoy.
But no matter what happens, who wouldn't want a president that drips that harder wolverine's claws.