The popular saying is “never meet your heroes.” In this case, our hero came to us and he did nothing but bring disappointment—tweet after tweet. Fame comes with popularity, but every artist gets to choose how big their fame grows. In the past few years, no one in pop culture has proclaimed himself to be a genius more often than Kanye West. However, Kanye’s recent words on social media and interviews have redefined his legacy. He is one of the rappers a lot of people have described as “real”, “genius”, “goat” but redefined his career and shattered the hearts of many fans during his recent interview with TMZ. This made me revisit J. Cole’s ‘False Prophet’. J. Cole was probably the first fan to face the harsh reality that Kanye today, will never be the Kanye we fell in love with—the old Kanye. Many people have overlooked a lot of Ye’s actions and words because of his contribution to the industry. Indeed, ”Somebody should’ve told me it would be like this”. Cole’s words at that time were seen as trivial, little did we know that song will be the ‘R.I.P Mr. West’ anthem.
Kanye wrapped the effects of everything bad an artist could do to disappoint the world and presented it to his fans like a nuclear weapon. Over the years, even without meeting Ye in person, many fans have created an idea of his persona based on the lyrics in his music— even J. Cole. On False Prophets, he mentions ”Maybe it’s my fault for idolizin’ niggas Based off the words they be rappin’”. We all imagined Kanye as a genius, and epitome for black excellence, based on the lyrics in his music. Kanye isn’t the first of many celebrities to do so, but his words have had ripple effects across generations.
Over the past few years, many idols have let their fans down. From cases of domestic abuse, sexual misconduct, and cheating, the fans have seen and heard it all— or so we thought. An artist who inspired many others is now the subject of ridicule in the world—even by the 6ix9ine’s and Lil whatever’s who ordinarily should have the utmost respect for him. They can’t be blamed though. At this point, even kids in elementary schools display more knowledge than the old genius that is Kanye West.
Kanye has never been afraid to speak his mind, both on record and off. while he has a long track record of speaking on sex, relationships, fashion, social issues and, of course, himself, he’s also spent plenty of time over the years diving into the political world in his lyrics. Well, it is now clear he didn’t dive into those political words—his ghost writers did. Which is one of the things J. Cole mentioned in ‘False Prophets. Kanye’s use of ghostwriters is well-documented and stretches back to his ‘College Dropout’ days. This is probably why Kanye’s political view and stance hit the world so hard.
Kanye, a prophet who said in his music that “Racism still alive / They just be concealin’ it,” completed the process of being a false prophet the day he wore the ’MAGA’ hat. This isn’t just a publicity stunt for his new album, this is real. Kanye has fallen victim to all of the demons he warned us, and himself, about. Moments like this make hip-hop fans question their loyalty to their favorite artists. Who will be the next industry clown? Will Kendrick or J. Cole break our hearts too? Nobody knows. Today, choosing a favorite artist is like a gamble. A gamble many Chris Brown fans have lost. You never know when your favorite artists will stab the hip-hop corner of your heart. Like Kanye, many other false prophets are bubbling under, but Kanye has saved us from seeing and hearing the worst—hopefully.
