The A+ list rapper is so desperate to have an income stream that he hasn’t signed over to his ex, that he is rushing quickly with his new project with a lot of spinoffs, but he doesn’t have the cash for it all and is going to end up owning none of it because of the agreements he has signed.

Kanye West

Kim Kardashian

What’s going on with Ye — and why does it matter?

You don’t have to be obsessed with pop culture to know that something is going on with Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West. Recently divorced from the reality show star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian, he’s been at the center of several controversies: He was banned from performing at the upcoming Grammy Awards. Before that, he was suspended from Instagram for a day after making racist comments directed at The Daily Show host and upcoming Grammys host Trevor Noah after Noah raised concerns about Ye’s conduct.

That conduct includes relentlessly trolling his former wife and her current beau, the comedian Pete Davidson, and releasing a disturbing music video that shows a Claymation figure — with a remarkable resemblance to Ye — kidnapping and gruesomely dismembering another figure that bears a remarkable resemblance to Davidson. Ye has claimed all of this is an effort to win back his former wife and reunite their family.

Aisha Harris of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour joined Michel Martin to break down how she’s thinking about Ye’s recent behavior. Their conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Looking at this from another vantage point, Ye’s supporters have made the argument that this is all performance art, and therefore, it’s off-limits to critique on other-than-artistic terms. Trevor Noah also made the point that Kanye and those close to him have disclosed that he has mental health issues. But other people have mental health issues and don’t harass people, right? So I’m wondering: Does the audience have some role in this? And if so, what is it?

Kanye, from the beginning of his career, has made himself part of the art. He’s not Banksy. He’s not a performance artist who you only know who he is based on his voice; you don’t know his personality. That’s not him. And if you listen to the lyrics in “Eazy,” a lot of those lyrics are actually reflecting things that he’s said on social media and in interviews. He mentions: no more counseling. I don’t negotiate with therapists. He’s been open about not taking the medications that he’s been prescribed. And so when that’s happening and it’s all coming together in the art, you can’t just say you have to separate the art from the artist, because it’s playing out right in front of us. – Source

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