Dear Mr. West
Dear Mr. Kanye West,
My name isn't important, but my background is. I was ten years old when I first heard of you; it was on a song titled 'Knock You Down'. As an unpopular kid in school who had vision problems and who tended to be the class clown, I could relate to your verse. I felt a connection to what you were saying. Not too long after, you were working with Jay-Z and seemingly all over the radio with 'Run This Town'. It was electric. Soon enough, I had listened to The College Dropout, Late Registration and Graduation. I was a fan.
I grew up listening to your music - I was there to watch you grow as an artist. I vibed with 808's and Heartbreaks as my friends started to experience the pain of lost relationships. Middle school bumped to the sounds of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, as we struggled to find ourselves with popularity and 'fame' for the first time. As teens like me explored who we were as people, trying to sort it out, we had the chance to listen to Yeezus and feel as if you were in the same place. As maturity started to grow on us, there came The Life of Pablo; a new expression of art and power. Finally, as college proved to my generation that we were still imperfect, your Ye project came into play.
To be frank, we grew up on Kanye West as a celebrity and as an artist.
You released Jesus is King not too long ago, and I have no problems with the project now. I like it to a certain extent. It feels genuine; you found Christ, and I'm happy for you. I pray that He blesses you abundantly. It just so happens to come at a time where people my age are affirming themselves in their faith. "This is what I believe" and "This is who I will pray". We know your perspective now and it feels reaffirming that you've seemingly been there to encounter every problem we've had in the past ten years. From growing up, to popularity, to imperfection and eventually to religious clarity. It feels like someone has my back.
But you've got to stop being crazy Kanye.
My guy, allow me to be blunt with you. I believe in freedom of speech as much as the next person, but you've got to stop saying crazy things. Or at least, formulating your sentences as if you came from an alternate reality where the subjunctive applies to everything. Be pro-life, but please don't say:
Democrats had us voting for Democrats with food stamps for years. What are you talking about guns in the 80s, taking the fathers out the home, Plan B, lowering our votes, making us abort children.
- Kanye West
While a lot of that sentence makes sense and is arguably true, that last part is some Alex Jones level conspiracy theory. I won't get into the semantics of it all, I'll let you think about it logically. You're saying that they want to kill the people who vote for them the most? Wouldn't that be, I don't know, a stupid strategy?
But that isn't everything that we need to talk about Mr. West. You know that your wife was made famous by an explicit video with Ray J and that she's broken the internet more times than Bill Gates can fix it. You knew who she was when you married her and possibly even better five years later. Why is that you currently have a problem with the way that she acts and dresses? Too revealing? Maybe you should've thought about that before marrying her.
I still have so much respect for your music and will continue to follow you as I did before; that won't change anytime soon. I've learned to separate the man and the artist, but not everyone does that. So you need to tone down the nonsense so that your musical genius and rampant philanthropy can be what you are remembered for. Not the controversial and stupid comments.
Sincerely yours,
Kanye West Fans