Wednesday, September 16, 2009

I'm sorry, Kanye.

I'm sorry, Kanye.

I really wouldn’t want to be in Kanye West’s shoes right now. We all know the story by now, about how he upstaged Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Awards and proclaimed that Beyonce’s video was “one of the best videos of ALL time”.

Like everyone else who saw it, I immediately got into the act of ridiculing and condemning him for it. I was like seemingly everyone else in the world, hopped on the ol’ internet and joined the chorus.

I’ve been making fun of Kanye West long before Sunday night, though. He has been pulling stunts like this for years at award shows…whining and upstaging people at the Grammy shows, saying controversial things at big gatherings just to piss people off. He is the ego that ate the music industry. Even the “South Park” creators made an entire episode lampooning him for his egotistical and self-glorifying antics...ultimately drawing parallels to his way of thinking with Eric Cartman’s. Oh yeah, and they called him a gay fish.

Sunday’s incident, as far as I can tell, was not the worst thing he’s ever done. Yet, for some reason, it seems the world has made it out to be. What he did was mean, obnoxious, stupid and wrong. But when immediate and brutal criticism and joking justifiably resulted, it hasn’t STOPPED, even three days after the fact. President Obama reportedly called him a “jackass”, millions of Facebook, Twitter and Youtube posts skewered him and even stooped to dropping the N-bomb and saying they wished him dead.

Then the talk-show hosts went after him. Jay Leno essentially demanded that he apologize, asking him what his recently deceased mother would have thought. In response to that, he apologized, and cried on national television. Then came the jabs by Conan OBrien. Then Jimmy Fallon weighed in. Then all the bitchy daytime gossip reporters on the morning shows did their bit, and it’s still going on. You can bet it’ll be on SNL soon enough. There will be t-shirts made and song parodies by the assload.

What I have to ask myself and everyone else is: when do we stop casting stones? It’s one thing to joke around about something a celebrity did…they knew the job was dangerous when they took it. But to continually punish someone for something they have formally apologized for? How many times have we all done something in front of a crowd of people that we later regretted? We’ve all been or known the guy who got drunk and made an idiot of himself at a wedding, said something mean to or about a close friend or lover and lost them forever, or done something stupid and gotten arrested in public view. What happens after that? Well, what usually follows is backlash and punishment, an apology, mending of fences, and (let’s keep it hip-hop here!) “G’won, brush ya shouldas off.”

Kanye hasn’t been granted that chance to brush his shoulders off. I think it’s time for us, the public, to realize that there comes a time to forgive people, no matter how famous or well-known they are. We all like to point at celebrities and do a Nelson “HA HAAA!” when they screw up, because it makes us feel better about ourselves. But let’s be honest…WE are the reason these people are famous in the first place. Kanye West didn’t become a pop superstar with millions of dollars and billions of fans because he woke up and found a magic genie lamp in his room one day. Neither did Taylor Swift or Beyonce or Jay-Z or Lady Gaga or the late Michael Jackson or Pink or Blue or Chartreuse or whoever. Like Eminem says, “We’re the ones who made you”. Imagine being someone who believes you’re the greatest of all time in your chosen art, because you’ve been told so by legions of adoring fans. Your self-esteem is through the roof, because you’ve been lead to believe that you can do no wrong. Your public places you on a pedestal, they idolize you, and they pay their hard-earned money to experience what you say and do. But the second you make a mistake, they become a lynch-mob and chop that pedestal down, and throw you to the wolves. Imagine how that would make you feel.

I don’t like Kanye West. I like a few of his songs, but I don’t care for him particularly as a person. Still, that does not give me or anyone else the right to do what we have all done to him.

I heard this song on the way home from work today, and while I’d always liked it, I had never really paid attention to what it was saying. Suddenly, I understood how Kanyeezy must be feeling right now. West has even collaborated with the song’s creators, Coldplay, on a few occasions.

Viva La Vida lyrics
Songwriters: Berryman, Guy Rupert; Buckland, Jonathan Mark; Champion, Will; Martin, Christopher A J;
I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can't explain
Once you go there was never
Never an honest word
And that was when I ruled the world

It was the wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People couldn't believe what I'd become

Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?

I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can't explain
I know Saint Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can't explain
I know Saint Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world


© UNIVERSAL MUSIC - MGB SONGS;

Finally, let's all remember:

Luke 6:42: “How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.”
-Jesus (Who does, indeed, walk.)

I’ll drop it, Kanye. I hope everyone else will do the same.

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