By Jeremy Binning
Kanye West has been driving fans crazy, in both a good and bad way. As if the popular song by rapper Lil Durk “Kanye Krazy” was any indication, Kanye has been on a very interesting, and somewhat disturbing, rant on Instagram. Mainly aimed at his previous partner Kim Kardashian and her new boyfriend, Pete Davidson, Kanye has posted numerous posts with captions aimed at Davidson, most notably calling him “Skete.” Now Kanye, legally known as “Ye” since Oct. 18, 2021, isn’t new to making headlines of this sort, from taking the microphone from Taylor Swift as she accepted an award in 2009 to publicly announcing that he will be running for president in 2020. However, this time things seem more personal.
It’s widely known that Kanye and Kardashian have publicly split and are in the stages of finalizing their divorce. Kardashian clearly seems like she’s done with Kanye and his antics, and has moved on. Meanwhile Kanye hasn’t been taking it lightly. With the announcement of DONDA, released Aug. 29, 2021, his 10th studio album, Kanye had made his return to the public eye since his failed political campaign of 2020. Around that time, the beginning of summer 2021, Drake also announced he too was releasing an album later that summer, Certified Lover Boy. Kanye and Drake’s feud had been public well before both announced their albums, stemming from a situation between Drake and one of Kanye’s artists, Pusha-T.
The two have since overlooked this incident and are now good friends, recently doing a joint-show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles this past December. This incident was just the first domino to fall. After the release of DONDA, Kanye and Kardashian began a very aggressive custody battle over their four children. Once Pete Davidson came into the scene and began dating Kardashian, Kanye didn’t take it too lightly. Constantly bashing Davidson online and even sending physical threats at him like in his song “Eazy.” This caused his fans to join in as well, which got so bad to the point where he deactivated his Instagram account.
“I think Kanye did a lot by posting all that stuff,” Justice Hall, a junior majoring in broadcast journalism, said. “He even started messing with a girl who looks just like Kim — he’s going out bad.”
To add on to his legal troubles, he’s currently under investigation with the Los Angeles Police Department for an incident in which a photographer was assaulted. Kanye allegedly attacked the photographer in early January after leaving a studio session. He’s being charged with battery and could face 6-months in prison if convicted according to TMZ.
Many believe Kanye’s acting out this way to promote his new album DONDA 2. Much like the build-up to the first one, he hosted a live listening event to play songs from the album. What separates this from the last album is you need a stem player, specifically designed by West, to listen to the album. The stem player is on sale for $200. However, it costs this much because of the features it has. The stem player allows a user to remix the downloaded songs and change it up to how they like it. A user could listen to the album as it is, or remix it by changing up the bass, drums, and vocals. Many aren’t too enthusiastic about the stem player, feeling it’s too much money for just one album.
With the recent release of DONDA 2 Feb. 23, it will be interesting to see if Kanye continues his public display of anger at anyone who steps in his way or tries to stop him. Kanye has still made recent headlines with the announcement of his recent break-up with actress Julia Fox after just getting together this last December. However, things between him and Kardashian have seemed to have reconciled in some way as the divorce was finalized in early March and both are officially single, according to Billboard. One thing is for certain, Kanye will never shy away from trying to expand his brand by any means.
