Matthew’s Mind

By Matthew Cardoza 

kmcardoza13@gmail.com

Wake Up, Mr. West!

Kanye West, for the past few years, has kept himself in the news for many reasons, from the mundane to the infamous. He has elevated his career since his debut album, The College Dropout, released in 2004, to becoming known today for his rapping, producing, songwriting and fashion with his line of Yeezy clothing and shoes.

Now he has entered the political realm, buddying up with President Donald Trump and even floating the idea of running for president in the year 2024. While Kanye is not the first celebrity to go in to politics, the way he’s been going into it is not the traditional way people of his status get into politics.

Recently, Kanye has preached a gospel of love from his social media accounts such as Twitter, appearing to reject the notion of political party to express free thinking and free thoughts. One of his tweets verbatim: “I love when people have their own ideas. You don’t have to be allowed anymore. Just be. Love who you want to love. That’s free thought. I’m not even political. I’m not a democrat or a republican…”

Illustration by Cleo Cabanez
Illustration by Cleo Cabanez

While Kanye is free to join anyone or group he likes, vague tweets and publicity stunts alone aren’t enough to run on. If Kanye is serious about running for political office, then he should stop preaching his empty calorie philosophy and clearly articulate his stance as an independent to make the audience understand his plights.

While Kanye is a man who is very musically gifted, he is kind of hard to understand at times. For every issue he wants to help solve like prison reform, he drowns his ideas in long, unarticulated ramblings that go on for more than five minutes. His speeches often drag on and on, such as the one he gave at the College of Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan where he asked people to leave Tesla CEO Elon Musk alone, leaving the audience in attendance confused.

The man is chock full of ideas on how to better the world, which I personally admire from someone with his level of celebrity status. But by being ambiguous about his political leanings and by being overall a man always embroiled in controversy, I don’t see his causes advancing further beyond the celebrity realm, as the people outside his fanbase won’t take him seriously due to him being all talk and no action on the issues.