# Kanye West - what happened? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 2, 2022, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895 "2022-12-02T00:56:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/101 "2022-12-03T01:23:45Z")
Or as my wife puts it, “Too many dollars, not enough cents”. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/102 "2022-12-03T01:50:40Z")
The main issue I have with treating “Kanye West” like a deadname is that he continued to use it after his name change. Google his _Jesus is Lord_ album (the one that came after _Ye_) and see what name is on. His Twitter, last I checked, still used Kanye. What’s more, so much of the media about him uses the name “Kanye West” (which is probably way people like @Qadgop_the_Mercotan didn’t know about the change despite following at least some news about him). And yet Ye has not objected to this. I admit, I use “Ye” because I’m somewhat uncomfortable calling him “Kanye” without an explicit claim that it’s okay. But I still don’t think we can analyze it the same way we would a trans person who has declared their former name to be dead. We have no indication that he even wants people to stop using his former legal name, let alone that its use causes him any sort of trauma. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/103 "2022-12-03T02:23:10Z")
Who would mourn him? His children, don’t you think? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/104 "2022-12-03T03:12:33Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > The only way it would be stupider is if he called himself The Dial of Destiny. Ha ha no one would ever call anything something that… oh no ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/105 "2022-12-03T03:25:07Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > But have you seen the Seth Rogan/James Franco tribute version? No, but now I absolutely love the song. It just took the right video vision to make me realize the artistic vision Ye/he was going for. Hilarious! > [@xizor](#): > > Ah yes, the poetry of Kanye is where his genius can be quantified. Perhaps a better example: I actually do think those are better lyrics. I’m not saying they are good lyrics, but better than than fuck shit stack\* I posted. \*No disrespect to Reggie Watts. That song/video is legit talent. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/106 "2022-12-03T03:34:40Z")
I don’t know anything about his music but the first time I heard his name in the news he sounded like a few cards short of a full deck. And it’s gotten worse over time. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/107 "2022-12-03T04:14:14Z")
I’ve always loved the second verse of All Falls Down from College Dropout. Kanye is remarking on materialism, self-esteem, racism, vanity, his own shortcomings, emptiness, futility, etc. It’s weird to see someone who wrote this become what he is now. > Man, I promise, I’m so self-conscious > That’s why you always see me with at least one of my watches > Rollies and Pashas done drove me crazy > I can’t even pronounce nothin’, pass that Ver-say-see > Then I spent four hundred bucks on this > Just to be like, “Nigga, you ain’t up on this” > And I can’t even go to the grocery store > Without some Ones that’s clean and a shirt with a team > It seem we livin’ the American Dream > But the people highest up got the lowest self-esteem > The prettiest people do the ugliest things > For the road to riches and diamond rings > We shine because they hate us, floss 'cause they degrade us > We tryna buy back our 40 acres > And for that paper, look how low we’ll stoop > Even if you in a Benz, you still a nigga in a coupe ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/108 "2022-12-03T04:58:18Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > His mental disorder (if it exists…I don’t know that it has actually been established that a professional psychiatric diagnostician has actually identified Kanye as bipolar > [@BobLibDem](#): > > Sure he has a mental illness but I’m not qualified to say which one- some have said bipolar He apparently was clinically diagnosed as bipolar in 2016. He has gone back and forth on that ever since, sometimes claiming he was misdiagnosed, at other times acknowledging it. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/109 "2022-12-03T11:01:50Z")
It took me a while to realise how to pronounce his new name. If you need to summon his supporters do you just sing ‘Oh come all Ye faithful’? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/110 "2022-12-03T13:18:48Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’ve always loved the second verse of All Falls Down from College Dropout. Kanye is remarking on materialism, self-esteem, racism, vanity, his own shortcomings, emptiness, futility, etc. It’s weird to see someone who wrote this become what he is now. I’m not a big fan, but I did listen to his first few albums and I thought he had some pretty contemplative and understandable/empathetic statements in some of those albums. Was Kanye rich growing up? ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/111 "2022-12-03T14:19:20Z")
Some context here: [Deplorable: How Kanye West went from beloved generational rapper to far-right Hitler apologist](https://apple.news/A02daUCEiQIiMBd0jynjcKQ) ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/112 "2022-12-03T14:55:19Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > > [@Loach](#): > > > > As for whether a song can be objectively bad or if as the saying goes “the audience is a genius\*” I’ll leave you with this; “Disco Duck” reached #1 on the US charts. > > Muskrat Love made it to #4. To prove once and for all that execrable, vomit-inducing music made by absolutely talentless hacks can make you big bucks: These guys sold 120 million records. (sorry to everybody, but I post it for science) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/4kHl4FoK1Ys/maxresdefault.jpg "Modern Talking - You're My Heart, You're My Soul (Official Music Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kHl4FoK1Ys) Q.E.D. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/113 "2022-12-03T15:08:03Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > He apparently was clinically diagnosed as bipolar in 2016. He has gone back and forth on that ever since, sometimes claiming he was misdiagnosed, at other times acknowledging it. People have been talking about his brain having something wrong with it for a LONG time, and that talk has been almost entirely based on fairly convincing evidence related entirely to Ye’s behaviour. This isn’t an overreacting to a single blowup like Britney Spears, or when some people were saying Dave Chappelle was disturbed because… he turned down a lot of money to do more seasons of his show. Whether it’s specifically bipolar disorder, though, one cannot say for sure. It’s SOMETHING though. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/114 "2022-12-03T15:17:46Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Whether it’s specifically bipolar disorder, though, one cannot say for sure. It’s SOMETHING though To bad, so sad. He’s still an asshole though. Maybe his disorder takes the asshole filter off, but he’s still an asshole. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/115 "2022-12-03T15:19:10Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > To bad, so sad. He’s still an asshole though. Maybe his disorder takes the asshole filter off, but he’s still an asshole. I’m certainly not absolving him of his sins. He isn’t, to my knowledge, literally psychotic and unable to discern right from wrong. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/116 "2022-12-03T17:41:39Z")
RE: Kanye vs Ye. The latter isn’t even a different name, it’s just a shortening of the former. Plus, even if he did legally change it, it amounts to a stage name. If I call Bob Dylan “Robert Zimmerman”, am I really insulting him because I know his former name? I don’t think he’s a musical genius at all. The most genius thing he did was sample Ray Charles. Even that song wasn’t really groundbreaking. Popularity does not even factor into whether a person is moving the form forward. Death Grips is a lot closer to genius, and far less popular. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/117 "2022-12-03T17:42:33Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > I don’t like Taylor Swift either, but I hear there’s a lot of people who would say she is talented. One of the ways I manage to convince myself that I am not totally out of touch is that I like Taylor Swift. Not enough to have her on playlists, but I’m not a big music person in general. I listen to news in my car. However, I actually appreciate her voice, and I understand the appeal of her lyrics. And I have never made it all the way through a Kanye West “song.” It’s not for lack of appreciation of rap, either, because I do like some early rap music, and I can point to specific qualities in Kanye West’s songs (I cannot call a person Ye, because it feels like I’m using the archaic objective plural second person) that irriate me. The fact that a lot of people buy something does not make it good. A lot of people buy margarine and Pepsi. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/118 "2022-12-03T20:48:15Z")
Can’t really add much to the train wreck that is Ye, but at least I learned why he named a couple of his albums Donda. I didn’t even realize it was a name. 😊 ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/119 "2022-12-03T22:40:42Z")
He’s definitely keeping a PR firm somewhere afloat, that’s for sure. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895/120 "2022-12-03T22:55:21Z")
Yeah, that figures, praising Hitler is such good PR… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kanye-west-what-happened/975895.md?page=7)