LUPICA: Kanye West's pro-Trump thinking is about selling himself

Kanye West, who once again looks like the kind of phony that aspirational young phonies everywhere want to grow up to be, says that this week’s embrace of President Trump was an example of what an independent thinker he is. Well, yeah, but only if the independent thinking is about selling a new song with all that dragon energy he says he has, and shares with our current President.

But this isn’t about his own politics, if he actually has any. This isn’t about Trump’s politics. This is simply one self-promoter — Kanye — emulating a guy he saw promote himself all the way to the White House.

But maybe Kanye does provide a real public service in the process. Just when you think that our current political discourse can’t get any dumber, here he comes over the hill, talking about dragon energy, talking about how he and the President are equal, though you have to say not all the precincts have reported on that particular race, one still too close to call.

The whole thing makes you remember Charlie Sheen’s lofty discourse about “tiger blood” when he was on tour trying to sell himself and salvage his sitcom career. That was one kind of cartoon. Kanye is another this week on Twitter. The idea that what he is saying and doing is actually about something, and ought to inspire serious debate about liberal and conservative values, makes West’s old feud with Taylor Swift seem more serious than peace talks between North and South Korea.

Here is what West says in a new track called “Ye vs. The People”:

“Make America Great Again had a negative perception/I took it, wore it, rocked it, gave it a new direction/ Added empathy, caring, love and affection/ And y’all simply questioning my methods.”

As soon as he lit up social media with what seemed to be a renewed buddy movie with Trump, he was defended by Chance the Rapper, who didn’t want the rap show to go on without him.

“Talked to (Kanye) two days ago. He’s in a great space and not affected by folk tryna question his mental or physical health,” Chance tweeted. “Black people don’t have to be Democrats.”

But somebody needs to ask Chance this question: Who in the world said that they did? At the same time perhaps somebody ought to point out to Chance that one of the most important civil rights leader in the history of this country, Jackie Roosevelt Robinson, was a Republican who supported Richard Nixon in 1960, before it was Nixon who became a President of fear and racial division.

There is no question about Kanye West’s talent, or that he is one of the most successful recording artists of all time. He can sing, and he can sell. Now he is selling himself and his music all over again, getting himself the kind of easy publicity Trump got when he was running for President. But if you actually believe that the statement he is making here about anything other than royalties and his own ambition, you don’t just believe in dragon energy. You believe that actual dragons are still roaming the Earth.

So here was Kanye this week, rumbling and stumbling into the spotlight the way he did at the MTV Video Music Awards that time with Taylor Swift. It seems that every week there’s a new mayor of Stupidville in this country. Kanye won that election in a landslide this week. What he really rocked was that.

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