I felt the same way while attending an event at the Andy Warhol Museum last weekend. That Warhol was a visionary deserving of all accolades is undeniable. But, the visit just reinforced the fact that when certain people reach a certain stature, anything they do is accepted as genius, including some things that garner “Wows” when they should be receiving a chorus of “WTFs.”
You can argue that status is earned. If a newly found, ketchup-stained napkin with Warhol’s signature on it is able to command 1.6 million dollars at an auction, this says more about the transcendent force of Warhol’s talent that anything else. His resume allows him to receive the benefit of the doubt.
But, the person actually making that purchase allows himself to be gamed by a person’s name instead of making an honest assessment of the actual product. And, they perform the worst type of self-delusion—one where a person is completely aware of the lie they’re telling themselves. They’ve fully bought in to the bullshit, and when you buy bullshit that you literally saw drop out of a cow’s ass, you have no integrity. You make yourself a slave to a person instead of what that person creates.
Anyway, I downloaded Kanye West’s Yeezus Friday, and have listened to it approximately 10 times since. It is an incoherent, jumbled, rhythm-adverse, pretentious, pseudo-intellectual, racist, and misogynistic mess.
I’m also completely in love with it.
The irony isn’t lost on me.
Read More: http://verysmartbrothas.com/yeezuss-new-slave/
Very Smart Brothas is a culture blog founded by and featuring Damon Young (aka \"The Champ\") and Panama Jackson.