Is Kanye West Seriously Losing It?

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Kanye’s live rants have become as much a part of the Saint Pablo tour as the floating stage: an addition to the music, a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle that’s reflective of the artist. Kanye’s been doing the rants since the Yeezus tour (even prompting comedian Bo Burnham to craft a phenomenal parody/homage for his latest special, Make Happy) and they’ve always been a chance for him to air out his feelings in a public space, but lately they seem reflect a man who’s totally out of touch with reality.

At the recent San Jose tour stop, Kanye stated that, had he voted, he would’ve voted for Donald Trump, a man who’s shown no respect for minorities or racial issues. Kanye’s infamous “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” speech was a defining moment of his career, so it seems very odd that he’d suddenly changed his tune for yet another racist Republican president, but what’s even more odd is the fact that Kanye donated the maximum amount possible ($2700) to Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2015.

Last night, at the latest stop in Sacramento, Kanye’s seriously let down his fans by showing up 90 minutes late, playing three songs, engaging in his most bizarre rant yet, and then promptly leaving. Even performing “Waves” and “Father Stretch My Hands” with Kid Cudi as a special guest didn’t make up for the disrespectful performance, shown below.

Kanye’s rant went through a ton of topics in the span of about fifteen minutes, and the whole thing is available to read on Rap Genius. He took shots at the radio for overplaying Drake and DJ Khaled’s “For Free” while ignoring Frank Ocean and Kid Cudi. He shouted out A$AP Rocky and Nast (“A$AP? That’s the future! That’s the n***as that got me and Cudi on our toes like that”), but also shouted out Ian Connor, the stylist/publicist who used to work with Kanye and Rocky before dozens of rape allegations and public feuds with the likes of Theophilus London and A$AP Bari lead to his ungraceful descent from acclaim.

Mirroring his earlier support for the new President elect, Kanye repeatedly told the crowd that he was “on [his] Trump shit” and that “Obama couldn’t make America great”. He called out Beyoncé for reportedly refusing to perform at the VMAs if her video for “Formation” didn’t beat Kanye’s “Famous” and Drake’s “Hotline Bling“, adding that “sometimes we be playing the politics too much and forgetting who we are”.

Finally, amidst all the recent issues between him and Jay Z (regarding alleged comments that Jay Z never like Kanye and only did the Watch the Throne tour for the money, while Kanye publicly aired the Tidal/Apple Music dispute during another rant earlier in the tour), Kanye asked Jay to call him, saying “I know you got killas, please don’t send them at my head, just call me! Talk to me like a man!” In the end, Kanye called out Mark Zuckerberg for refusing to fund his projects, told Q-Tip not to tell him how to be, brought up Richard Pryor and Lebron James, and then ended the show with a mic drop.

Kanye’s always been controversial. Statements he’s made in concert, in interviews, and in his music have always tended to draw rage and offense, but it’s been easy to allege it to Kanye being Kanye. His last couple rants, however, are a new kind of crazy. It’s important to remember that he’s inevitably been under a ton of stress lately (working on up to four new albums, running a massive tour, and dealing with recent family issues like his wife recently being held at gunpoint in her hotel room), but none of that makes up for the fact that Kanye’s statements lately have been totally out of touch with reality. Either he’s off his Lexapro or he’s totally out of his mind, but hopefully he can snap out of whatever’s got him in such a destructive mindset.

Lately, I gotta say, I miss the old Kanye.

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