Kanye West stirred the pot once again, this time sporting a “Make America Great Again” hat in an Instagram post where he added “as we abolish the 13th amendment,” which raised much controversy and confusion. What it also did was infuriate Lana Del Rey and according to her, the culture took a loss in all of this.
“Trump becoming our president was a loss for our country but your support of him is a loss for the culture,” she wrote.
“I can only assume you relate to his personality on some level,” she wrote. “Delusions of Grandeur, extreme issues with narcissism – none of which would be a talking point if we weren’t speaking about the man leading our country.”
Although this is a big surprise for even the outspoken hip-hop legend who regularly delves into controversial topics like these, it’s not a loss for the culture.
Black culture, specifically, was untouched in this situation because they stopped listening to West years ago. His opinion hasn’t been valued for a while now and the only party that took a loss was West and his diminished positive image.
After being one of the most polarizing public figures in the early and mid-2000s, West’s mental has taken a significant hit following his mother’s death in 2007 and then his marriage to Kim Kardashian seemed to dig an even deeper hole for his sanity in 2014.
His radical statements were a minor annoyance at first but he still had the majority of his regular fans. Initially, he touched on topics that didn’t hold that much significance in the whole scheme of things. Now, he’s getting into sensitive topics that affect the world he lives in.
The 13th Amendment should what?!
The MAGA hat is one thing. You can’t chastise a man for his choice of fashion, but statements saying that the 13th Amendment should be abolished is what the culture will not stand for, and they shouldn’t.
For those that are unclear about the 13th Amendment’s meaning:
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Maybe West was really referring to prisoners not being used as slave labor, but like Yashar Ali said in the above tweet, he didn’t specify that. He’s tweeted on the topic since then and still, no rebuttal just clarification that he wants to amend the amendment, not abolish it all together.
People still wonder why West didn’t just mention what aspect of the amendment he wanted to be amended, just to clear the air.
This isn’t the first time West did something like this. Remember when he placed the Confederate flag all over his merchandise and ‘the culture’ just chalked it up to him reappropriating the flag for his brand? Maybe that wasn’t the case at all. Maybe, just maybe he’s actually out of his mind and confused.
Many of us grew up listening to Kanye. Many of us saw him as a role model, or at least a strong, influential black man that used his platform to help better the community, specifically, the black community. Over the last eight years, that reputation has gone dramatically and decisively down the drain bit-by-bit. The culture has taken no losses, this is just another loss for Yeezy and unfortunately, his reputation is dying in the meantime.