Tucker Carlson went to great lengths to remix Kanye West for his large conservative audience on Thursday night, calling him “an artist,” describing his erratic tweet storms as “free social media posts,” and pitching him as a “Christian evangelist.” If you hadn’t watched Fox News for the past 20 years, you would never have guessed that this was the same channel and slot where Bill O’Reilly once dismissed West as “the stupid little rapper.”
But the channel’s view of West, now Ye, has changed significantly in the six years since the rapper-fashionista made a hard right turn toward conservative libertarianism. Carlson warmed up his viewers to West as the introduction to an exclusive two-part one-on-one interview filmed at West’s Los Angeles headquarters for the Yeezy fashion brand.
For the better part of an hour, West was unsmiling and long-winded; Among other things, comparing his decision to debut a “White Lives Matter shirt” at Paris Fashion Week to Tonya Harding’s attempt at a triple-Axel (“It uses a gut feeling”), attributed the fashion industry backlash against the shirt to a campaign by Anna Wintour (“All her dolls had something to say”) and compared Donald Trump to Ralph Lauren (“He has his own buildings. He made Ivanka”). In Friday night’s second part, West took offense at public speculation about his sanity (“This hurts me”), while also implying that Gap knew about the Uvalde shooting before it happened (“I got Alex Jones territory already reached?”).
West performing at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. Photo: Mike Blake/PortalAnd as he unraveled those dark, twisted deceptions with a lanyard that wore an ultrasound around his neck, a visibly perplexed Carlson nonetheless nodded and smiled along while he went to great lengths to reassure his viewers that the man he delighted that it was definitely worth listening to. “You can judge for yourself,” Carlson said to the camera.
The tete-a-tete reminded me of another turning point in West’s career. In 2002, Roc-A-Fella label boss Dame Dash bestowed his gold chain on West during a 2002 concert. It was the moment West — a backpack-and-retainer geek who many didn’t take seriously as a beatmaker — was officially recognized for his burgeoning talent as a rapper. And truly, a superstar was born.
West was only invited to Fox News because of his controversial show at Paris Fashion Week. West attended the “secret” runway presentation of his ninth Yeezy collection in a long-sleeved t-shirt; Printed on the back were the words “White Lives Matter” – what Anti-Defamation believes is a hate slogan used by the KKK, the Aryan Renaissance Society and other white supremacist groups.
This deaf fashion statement was reinforced by supermodel Naomi Campbell, obnoxious right-wing pundit Candace Owens and Selah Marley – granddaughter of Bob Marley and daughter of R&B freedom fighter Lauryn Hill. “You can’t manage me,” West began, according to Page Six of the New York Post. “It’s an unmanageable situation.”
Tastemakers flinched in horror. Jaden Smith left the show. Vogue global fashion editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson denounced the shirts as “sheer violence” and West as “dangerous”. Rapper Yasiin Bey, a former West collaborator and early follower of his musical talent, posted a photo to Instagram of himself wearing a similar shirt but with the “v” faded out in life to read “White Lies Matter.”
Diddy split the baby in half and branded West a freethinker before warning: “Don’t wear the shirt. Don’t buy the shirt.” But Marley stood by her decision to model West’s shirt. “Seeing someone deviate from the ‘agenda’ gives you all such a panic that you will do whatever it takes to force them back into the box they think they should exist in,” she wrote in an Instagram story.
As West’s star rose, he quickly outgrew the Roc-A-Fella label, then hip-hop, then pop music, then the fashion industry
As the shirt continues to be the talk of fashion week, West is enjoying the attention. When asked by Carlson why he decided on the news, West said it was “obvious.”
It has become a cliché to reference his mother Donda’s death in 2007 when West broke up, arguing that this will be amplified in the Netflix docu-trilogy jeen-yuhs. In one scene, she dizzily recalls his schoolyard rhymes and marvels at his golden angel chain – a splendor for new money. “You need an angel to watch over you,” she jokes, adding that he’s had the rest of his life to put money to good use. Without her unwavering belief, legend has it, Kanye will never be the cultural iconoclast he is today.
But in an interview with Carlson, West despised his mother, a former professor, as a “liberal actress” who ripped him from his conservative-minded father, Ray West, an ex-Black Panther, and laid the groundwork for a strained relationship. Since his mother’s death, West said, he and his father have grown closer — to the point where he laughed at the fuss about the T-shirts; that his father also approved of them seemed an unmistakable pride.
To describe West’s turn as dramatic would be putting it mildly. West was a music industry maverick who conquered all odds. He was a staunchly pro-Black pop star who sampled soul music and celebrated black beauty. He campaigned for black causes, established a foundation to combat Chicago’s high school dropout and illiteracy rates, and supported Barack Obama’s presidential re-election campaign. He declared during a telethon on Hurricane Katrina, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
But as West’s star rose, he quickly outgrew the Roc-A-Fella label, then hip-hop, then pop music, then the fashion industry. As he struggled to find a new sense of belonging, his values took a back seat to his wealth. In 2016, he revealed he had $53 million in “personal debt,” urging Mark Zuckerberg and other billionaire friends to bail him out. “I just feel like rich people are always too cool to ask for help impressing each other at dinner parties,” he tweeted, adding that he “wanted to help the world” and needed “help with that.”
West at the White House in 2018. Photo: Kevin Lamarque/PortalAround that time, West’s closest associates (ghostwriter Rhymefest, rapper Talib Kweli) came forward with stories of how they really couldn’t reach the guy anymore. West soon showed up in the Trump Tower lobby to support Donald’s presidential candidacy. West topping it off with the maga hat was the coup de grace.
On Thursday, West continued to admire Trump but criticized Jared Kushner for what he believes to be his dogged management of the former president. He also targeted Jared’s brother Josh for securing an outsized stake in Skims, West, the fashion brand co-founded with Kim Kardashian. At this point, West didn’t scold his ex-wife for her hypersexual public display and for being closely associated with the Clinton family.
Still, even as he embraced Trump and Owens, West committed $2 million to legal fees for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and set up a college fund for Floyd’s daughter. Even when West said slavery “sounds like an election” or announced a presidential nomination at “The Birthday Party,” he threw pop-up gospel concerts. Even as he attempted to put the Confederate flag back on jackets and tote bags, he always felt that one day West would shed his theatrical shrouds and reconnect with his common sense.
After his stunt in Paris, it’s clear old Kanye is gone forever
But after his stunt in Paris, it’s clear that ol’ Kanye is gone for good. By focusing on the politics of false equivalence, West reminds us who he was all along: a guy who will say and do anything to be relevant — whether he’s playing gospel music to hawk haute couture or his own hard-won culture to repurpose clout into a tool for white supremacy.
Worse, he lacks self-confidence too much to realize how often he undermines himself. In an interview with Carlson, he made a big deal out of the fact that 50% of black deaths in New York City are due to abortion — a statement (not true) that shows how West, despite his T-shirts, wants to privilege black lives in the moments when it fits his right-wing anti-abortion agenda. Even the idea that the shirts could be a Trojan horse gambit to siphon off money for the real justice movement died Thursday night.
It’s high time we accepted that West’s rants aren’t a by-product of outside forces, inner demons, or the development of family people. It’s about prioritizing contrarianism and the ability to say something controversial over the literal meaning of whatever that might be, regardless of the possible consequences. And while the switch to arch-conservatism has undoubtedly paid off for West (who has gone from a $53 million hole to a multi-billionaire), the real value for him is once again being accepted.
The interview with Carlson not only marked West’s official entry into the mainstream conservative club. It made him a VIP.