Why You Can’t Cut Kanye Out (No Matter How Hard You Try)

February 7th was a dark day for all music fans, as one of the greatest musicians of all time, Kanye West, now known as Ye, went on a twitter rant that destroyed any hope of his sanity returning. Before the rant, Ye had looked better than ever, as clips of him performing at his wife’s birthday were circulating on the internet. But then, February 2nd happened. Elon Musk re-instated Ye to Twitter / X, and later that day he popped up on the Grammys red carpet with his naked (I’m not joking) wife. His actions kicked off renewed concerns about his mental health – concerns that were solidified five days later. In the aforementioned tweets, Ye called for the freeing of P. Diddy, marketed N*zi-inspired merch, and pretty much made fun of every group of people like it was an episode of South Park. After this string of tweets, society agreed he was beyond saving, and would shun him forever. 

But, this event calls for a question: can we get rid of his music? I tried this back in 2022 when I started DJing. As a Jewish man, I was really offended by what he said on the Alex Jones podcast, so I tried to not play any music by him or produced by him. After three months, I began to fold, and started playing his songs, though not his verses / words. It worked for a while, but in the end, I reverted back to just playing his songs in full again. It didn’t help that one third of the 2000s best songs were produced by him (“Stand Up”, “You Don’t Know My Name”, “Heart of the City”, “Used to Love U”, “Lucifer”, “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly”, “Overnight Celebrity”, 2/3rds of Common’s Be, “Get By”, etc.), and I can’t not play all that great music! 

Also, his influence is insane. Before Kanye (and partially Just Blaze & Bink), no one was chopping up soul samples at high pitches. And, the music world was very different post-808s & Heartbreak, as many of the most popular rappers of the late 2010s cited that album as their biggest influence (Drake, Juice WRLD, XXX, Future,  Lil Uzi Vert, etc.). But the most clear example of his influence is Travis Scott. Scott got his start as a co-producer for West’s Yeezus and he continued to work with West for his entire career so far (until now). His newest album UTOPIA is comprised of some unreleased songs from Kanye’s Donda like “God’s Country” and “Thank God”. Even “Modern Jam” is just a re-used instrumental from an old version of “I Am a God” from Yeezus and “Circus Maximus” uses the same drums from “Black Skinhead”. But, the clearest example of Ye’s influence on Scott is “90210”, whose second part is just a remake of West’s 2004 song “Family Business”. 

In conclusion, if you’re a hip-hop fan, categorically removing Kanye from your listening experience is, well, impossible. He has produced so much amazing music and inspired so many other transformational artists. Obviously, this is just my rationale as to why I still listen to him, but you are your own person, and should decide for yourself whether his words and actions now impact listening to his creations of the past.