I was up super late last night. Actually, I went to bed early this morning. Work and surfing on the internet had me awake longer than I should have been.
So when my CNN alert notification came a few hours after I dozed off, I groggily checked it and rolled back over. Something about Kanye West, one of my favorite rappers, and Donald Trump, the politician I’ve grown to despise more than any other in my life.
Most of my friends and family know this about me: Nick Loves Kanye West with a passion…He Hates Donald Trump with a passion.
Even longtime readers of Cypher Avenue know how much I Stan for Ye. I paid crazy bread to see The Life of Pablo Tour in the row right behind 2 Chainz and Lil Yatchy in Atlanta last September.
Sleep was good, it was oversleep actually. When I awoke it near afternoon, but I’m self employed and I work from home, so there were no worries about seeing a phone screen full of missed calls from angry bosses and supervisors.
Instead, I saw a screen full of missed notifications. Text Messages. Tweets. Facebook Comments. Cypher Ave Alerts.
All were asking what I thought about a blond hair dyed Kanye West meeting with Donald Trump.
Jesus.
Even just thinking about that photo turns my stomach.
I’m not in denial. I know full well that Kanye West is very polarizing and narcissistic. Some would say just as much as Donald Trump. But Kanye is my narcissist. One that gave me the courage to display my own confidence and self pride. Arrogance is subjective. Hell, even Phife Dawg in “Word Play” said:
“Ego. I’m on my own jock skill/Cuz if I don’t say I’m the best, tell me who the hell will.”
So, over the years, I grew to love Yeezy’s confidence, self esteem, arrogance, ego and even his emotional vulnerabilities. And that’s the biggest difference between Ye and Trump, he seems to actually care about other people.
This is the same man that went on Live Television after Hurricane Katrina and did this:
I saw this moment live when it happened.
The whole world reacted just like Mike Myers:
So to hear Ye recently go on a 20 minute rant during a concert to say that he would have voted for Trump (if he had voted), that definitely caused concern and confusion.
Then West was hospitalized, with doctors citing exhaustion and stress as the reason. While this didn’t completely explain away my concern for the homie, it at least gave me the impression that he would take a much needed break and come away with a clearer head.
Then this happened.
Seriously, Yeezy?!
So back to the notifications on my phone this morning.
All I could do was try to make a joke out of it. I told others that I just hoped Kanye didn’t agree to perform at Trump’s inauguration. I even added an “LOL” in my replies to make it clear I wasn’t bothered. But I was. I should have seen this coming though.
Kanye, married to Kim Kardashian, is in many ways addicted to fame and attention. Donald Trump embodied that this past election cycle. Just this summer Yeezy showed us his interest in Trump and Fame with his controversial video for “Famous” where he depicted wax figures of tabloid celebs all in bed together.
This is Kanye. The good and the bad. And I will always love him for that.
Seriously.
If I have to stomach his recent support for Trump while also getting rants like his EPIC 3-part Zane Lowe interview, I’ll take it. I mean, name one other rapper/musician that will speak this kind of truth:
The main person that helped me reconcile the events of the day was Kanye West Himself. After his meeting with Trump, he took to Twitter to clarify a few things:
So for now, I’m good. That’s all I can be.
We’re in for a rough four years and, in all honesty, Yeezy’s political views will be the least of my concerns. I’ve managed to still support the works of a lot of actors, artists and musicians who had different views as me. Kanye will just have to be added to that compartmentalized list.
At least until #2024.
I get it. We limit ourselves if we expect our hero/icon/guru people to be everything that we think they should be at all times. While I am not in the Kanye camp, you made a good case for your staying true to him.
I thought that I would waste my time reading this article, being that I haven’t been a fan of Kanye since My Beautiful Twisted Nightmare, but after reading about Ocky writing about Kanye being in the hospital and coming out thinking that he would get himself together only to show up at Trump Tower to meet up with Donald, I just had a black woman neck roll with a ‘mm-hm’ moment. Now I REALLY don’t feel bad about being a member of the BeyHive because Beyonce would ‘most probable than not’ pull off a stunt like this and have me upset like Ocky is right now (sorry man).
Personally I feel everything has a time and a season. My Kanye season ended years ago. Also, I will never direct the phrase coon towards another Black man.
For a president-elect with a Hollywood Walk of Fame star (that’s reportedly under “Secret Service-like protection”) and a stake in a TV show called “Celebrity Apprentice,” Donald J. Trump’s inability to land an A-list performer for his inauguration has reportedly forced his inauguration committee to offer ambassadorships in exchange for high-caliber talent, the Wrap reports.
Two talent bookers, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, told the Wrap members of Trump’s Presidential Inaugural Committee contacted them “with offers of cash or even plush diplomatic posts in exchange for locking in singers.”
One of the bookers said he “almost dropped the phone” when he heard the team member’s proposal. “Never in a million years have I heard something so crazy,” he said.
“My first thought was, ‘Are you joking?’” the booker added. “But no, it was serious.”
And he’s not the only one. According to the Wrap, a second insider was offered “an ambassadorship” if he could land a big-name celebrity for the inaugural line-up. The second booker told the Wrap he knows at least two more people were offered government posts in exchange for finding big name talent for the ceremony.
“They said they were in the process of ‘figuring out posts, ambassadorships and commissions’ if that was of any interest,” the manager said.
The president-elect previously boasted about his ability to “get stars” during the general election, when rival Hillary Clinton received helping hand from celebs including Katy Perry, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Madonna, Lady Gaga, and dozens of other famous supporters. At the time, Trump called Clinton’s star power “a form of cheating.”
Now, Trump himself is requiring a helping hand in landing big-name talent to serenade him on his big night. Asked about reports that the Trump transition team is “willing to pay anything” to land a performer like Bruno Mars or Clinton supporter Justin Timberlake, senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway dismissed the suggestion, joking that the A-list celebrities can call her directly.
Committee spokesman Boris Epshteyn similarly denied the reports. “There is no truth to this insinuation,” Epshteyn told the Wrap. “First-class entertainers are eager to participate in the inaugural events. The inauguration as a whole will be an exciting and uniting celebration of freedom and democracy. We will be releasing further details at the appropriate time.”
For now, the only known performer is 16-year-old “America’s Got Talent” runner-up Jackie Evancho, who will sing the National Anthem at Trump’s Inauguration. During President Barack Obama’s inauguration, that honor went to pop superstar Beyoncé.
But perhaps Trump’s luck is changing. Wednesday, the president-elect met with one mega-talent, rapper Kanye West, to discuss “life.” No word yet if West, who once rapped, “balled in and Donald Trump taking dollars from y’all,” plans on taking dollars from Trump’s Inaugural Committee, but reports indicate the pair did discuss an “ambassadorship” of sorts for West.
As one of the bookers told the Wrap, “Nothing is off the table. It’s like an alternate universe.”
Trump’s Inaugural Committee offered ‘diplomatic posts’ to bookers able to land A-list talent
When I read the first few lines, I thought Ock had taken up creative writing. Then I realized it was the real thing. I would have thought Toby Keith and some other country western folk would be lining up to provide entertainment. I guess even hillbillies have limits lol…
Forget about Kanye. I imagine the caliber of entertainment at the Trump inaugural ball will look like this…
I feel for @BlackguyExecutive as I know there are going to be a lot of fires for him and others to put out over the next four years from garbage ambassadorial appointments of cronies…
I was sitting here thinking about my next assignment which will be in support of global nuclear security and had a realization that the next Secretary doesn't have a record of thinking that supporting nuclear security matters. I think we all need to be very concerned
I spoke with my husband who isn't a real fan of my work because it isolates us, even though we knew this when we signed up…he said we can't quit now because we are the literal last stand. We have an obligation now to help the new president do what right. It's going to be hard and for the first time in my relatively short career. I am scared. Not because of terrorism or being captured in a foreign land but that I will have a duty to promote an agenda that I think will put the world in danger. Thankfully, the career diplomats have a duty to work at the pleasure of true president but also to the United States. Pray for me. And by pray I mean please be vigilant and engaged. Your country needs you now.
Should you really be telling us what your next assignment is, bro, is was that comment a WHITE FLAG!!? (Alex Jones dramatic chords). The nuclear thing is a cover, he's actually involved in extra-terrestrial refugee relocation to secret camps in North Dakota….lol.
Just kidding. Obviously, I wish you well in whatever you undertake. As I've mentioned before, we work in vastly different spheres, although both under departments run by cabinet level executives. The longer I work in the federal government, the more I see the ghost of Milton Friedman hanging over me telling me to "Get the hell out while you can!!!" And I'm definitely a firm believer in his quote that any government solution to a problem is usually worse than the original problem. Like Friedman and Thomas Sowell, who both started out as federal workers, the longer I stay, the more of a Classical Liberal I become.
That being said, Trump is proposing to put a Marine Corps General over my neck of the woods (OO-FUCKING-RAH!!), so maybe I'll stick around. At least it's not another fucking lawyer!
I thought of this when I read Zadie Smith's speech (delivered in Berlin on November 10) when she received the 2016 Welt Literature Prize. Her speech, "On Optimism and Despair", focused on the fate of multiculturalism after the election of Trump.
Toward the end she said
"If novelists know anything it's that individual citizens are internally plural: they have within them the full range of behavioral possibilities. They are like complex musical scores from which certain melodies can be teased out and others ignored or suppressed, depending, at least in part, on who is doing the conducting."
The full speech, which is excellent can be found in the December 22 issue of The New York Review of Books
On Optimism and Despair
My thoughts on Kanye West meets with Trump are
View attachment 4815
He's obviously sold his sold his soul. I haven't been feeling Kanye since he hitched his wagon to thensure Kardashian train. This is just the proof that my suspicion about him is correct. He's forgotten who he is and where he came from. His black card has been revoked.
I'm amused by West meeting with Trump more than anything. Just a Narcissist and his Son mugging for the ever-present camera.
Psychologically, Kanye reminds me of John Lennon in the 70s: wasted talent, too full of himself and his so-called "legend", too much money on his hands with too little direction, lost in celebrity but no one around him to tell him in a big brotherly way that he's full of shit. Like Lennon, he's in a "Lost Weekend" past his prime and glory days. That being said, I'd still rather listen to a Yoko Ono album any day of the week than entertain any of the so-called "talents" of a single Kardashian.