Kanye West. (Picture by Frazer Harrison/Getty Pictures for Floor Journal)
Kanye West is being condemned by critics, and even segments of his fanbase, after releasing a music video for his new single, “Eazy,” which depicts West beheading a determine who intently resembles SNL comic Pete Davidson, and burying him alive.
The black and white video, principally composed of stop-motion animation, has a cartoonishly macabre aesthetic, considerably just like a Tim Burton animation, and reveals West inflicting exaggerated acts of violence. At one level, West vegetation a handful of rose seeds contained in the determine’s head, which later bloom right into a full bouquet (doubtless a reference to the truckload of roses that West despatched Kim Kardashian for Valentine’s Day).
“Eazy” additionally incorporates the lyrics:
“‘God saved me from the crash, simply so I can beat Pete Davidson’s ass.”
Maybe by coincidence, the video was launched just a few hours after Kim Kardashian was declared legally single, marking a step ahead within the superstar couple’s divorce proceedings.
However the ominous video was broadly thought to be an unprovoked, deeply unprofessional assault towards Davidson, who West appears to have a fixation with, ever because the comic started relationship Kim Kardashian.
Beforehand, West has made a number of threatening references in the direction of Davidson on Instagram, and was later referred to as out by Kim (based on alleged texts that West himself leaked) for compromising Davidson’s security after encouraging his followers to shout “Kimye eternally” at Davidson in the event that they ever noticed him out in public. West has since deleted all the offending posts.
West’s assaults even prompted Davidson to give up Instagram, proper after rejoining the platform three years after deactivating his account for the sake of his psychological well being. After Davidson’s first submit was flooded with trollish Kanye followers, Davidson once more deactivated his account, selling a victorious submit from West, who posted an replace gloating over his perceived “victory.”
Twitter customers expressed horror and disappointment that the rapper would select to launch such an ominous video.
Some Kanye followers, nonetheless, took the time to defend the rapper, arguing that violence in music movies has been embedded within the style since its inception, citing Eminem’s movies as a counter-argument.
Notably, West’s fixed assaults towards Davidson have but to spark a public response from the comic – this isn’t a playful beef between two competing rappers, however seemingly, a one-sided act of harassment.
Whereas the controversy is difficult by West’s psychological well being points (the rapper has been identified with bipolar dysfunction), Davidson’s followers identified that the SNL comic suffers from his personal psychological well being points, which might be exacerbated by West’s public assaults towards him.
West’s unsettling obsession with Davidson marks a brand new low for the rapper, the highs of his profession not too long ago highlighted by the Netflix documentary Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy; the distinction between the “Previous Kanye” and the “new” has by no means been extra pronounced.