Okay, so Kanye West is having a moment right now! There's a lot going on!
Over the weekend, reports began to brew — like the best tea does — about West's wellbeing: that he had fired all his management (this has since been confirmed), that he'd been exhibiting "erratic behavior" concerning to his friends (this has since been denied), and that he'd even been feuding with HBIC Kris Jenner (this has since also been denied, by Kris herself).
A quick music break, please:
Since reactivating his Twitter account last week, West has tweeted 190 times (and counting), in the stream of consciousness-style that is Twitter at its purest, by which I mostly mean bad. After promoting new Yeezy merch and teasing new music, he segued into praising alt-right and conservative figures over the weekend, to the consternation of his fans (and the bemused giddiness of right-wing pundits).
West shouted-out the conservative YouTuber Candace Owens in particular; Owens is the director of urban engagement at Turning Point USA, an organization which describes its mission as "to educate students about the importance of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government," but through a conservative lens. (Turning Point USA technically describes itself as non-partisan, but then sometimes we've called ourselves as "toned" in dating app profiles so, really, mmkay.)
West later followed this up with a series of videos featuring clips from a livestream of Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert cartoons and an outspoken conservative provocateur, purportedly explaining "how Kanye showed the way to The Golden Age". Oh, and a series of tweets bemoaning what he described as a "thought police" mentality. We're not even at the really good stuff yet, FYI:
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On Monday, Ebro Darden, radio host at Hot 97, claimed West had called him and reconfirmed his "love" for President Trump. During a 2016 concert, West had said he didn't vote in that year's presidential election — but that if he had, it would have been for Trump.
He later visited the then President-elect at Trump Tower in New York, and tweeted a bunch about how he enjoyed their conversation. West later deleted those tweets, but as Darden's co-host tweeted after their show on Monday, "if you're waiting for [West] to say 'my bad' about his Trump statements — don't hold your breath".
Darden also alleged that West spoke about a previous addiction to opioids, which had left him hospitalized. (It's not clear if this relates to the widely-reported psychiatric evaluation West underwent in 2016.) West then called into Darden's show on Tuesday, but only to repeat "I love you" over and over, interspersed with awk pauses:
Now we're NEARLY at the point where West's wife Kim Kardashian was forced to intervene. But a little more context is needed first, because this is a long and twisted tale as we're sure you can all tell already — Kim had responded, teasingly to a few of her husband's faux-motivational tweets in recent days. Tweets like these, for example:
But she'd also RT'd some of West's messages as-is; presumably, these affirmations resonated with her in particular:
And she also shared a "party of 5" photo of the Kardashian-West fam all smiling widely, OK!? It's all good!
"Please know my tweets are a joke," she wrote in another message, "and I will die laughing if I see blogs and media really think I am being serious."
In the same vein, she called out The Daily Mail specifically for running with them as a legit squabble. (So, you know, it's bordering on a 'lady doth protest too much' situation.)
But she wasn't joking around when Kanye circled back to politics again on Wednesday afternoon, with these tweets — messages that, again, spoke of a rapport with his fellow "dragon energy" dude Trump, and his support thereof (though he couched this by also throwing Hillary Clinton love too):
At this point Kim, who had voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and is an increasingly-vocal supporter of gun control, immigrant rights, and other "liberal" causes, stepped in. A seemingly-chastened West added later that she had called him — and, wow, to be a fly-on-the-wall for that convo — and made him add a disclaimer to his positions. She's not here for them, basically!
Later, West returned to Twitter wearing the iconic 'Make America Great Again baseball cap, in a tweet captioned "we got love."
A signed 'MAGA' hat, too!
Kim, meanwhile, is on Twitter herself (just a thought, maybe y'all could talk about this IRL?) arguing that the media is "demonizing" her husband, who is "years ahead of his time," and also that West has "never said he agrees with [Trump's] politics:
Again though, that MAGA hat.
Readers affected by the issues raised in this story are encouraged to contact Samaritans free on 116 123 (www.samaritans.org) or Mind on 0300 123 3393 (www.mind.org.uk). Readers in the US are encouraged to visit mentalhealth.gov or the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
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