Bully (Deluxe)
Kanye has called himself everything, even God. But since he declared Jesus to be King in his Jesus Is King album, Kanye has attempted to perform Jesus. His ego being what it is, he wasn’t comfortable settling as a mere disciple. In fact, he has gone as close as calling himself Ye. Kanye claims "Ye" means "you," like in the Bible. But I think Ye is short for Yeezus. It is Kanye claiming to be some sort of Black Jesus. He is just shy to make the claim outright. His character, rage, and music since that album have basically been Kanye asking himself whether he is quite a Christ yet. He is just so sure he is close to Jesus that he is no longer worried about sparing his fans the anger, frustration, and all the other dark feelings, because the Jesus he believes in wouldn’t be embarrassed of those feelings. Kanye has performed his faith by crossing some lines that were believed uncrossable a while back. He threw away a billion dollars. He claimed to love Hitler. If you were going to give any establishment anywhere the middle finger, that is how you would do it. His faith was so strong that he was sure none of that would drag him down.
Maybe it was Bianca, or he found the last therapist in the world who is not a mufere, or he stole my Lubale when he came to Uganda in 2018. The actual reason doesn't really matter. What this latest album is mostly about is Ye coming back to his senses. That nigga ain't Jesus. Jesus is a story in the book, but Ye is a real person. White people have a word for someone who performs a character without being aware that they are performing it: mental illness. So, I imagine the future of Ye’s music is going to be much less radical as he transitions from Ye method-acting Jesus to Ye commoditizing, scaling, and mass-distributing Jesus as a product. Obviously, this can go the conservative way as well, where Ye opens the path to the radicalization of Christians. I think he is done fighting. He wants to let the banks and establishment decide: Do you want the story of a Christian in the club surrounded by BBLs you can monetize, or do you want a story of a Christian in church pursuing purity? Which fight do you want?
Obviously, Ye—like Drake, The Game, Jay-Z, Eminem, Kendrick, and all your favorite stars—is an illustration of the weaponization of the attention economy. For all the people who hoard more attention than they need, part of the contract of fame is putting your soul on the market. But the market is run by banks, and sometimes the banks prefer war. If they own your soul, they will get you to mobilize your audience for war. This is better illustrated today by Ed Sheeran’s situation. Ed is incapable of condemning a genocide because that part of his soul is not his own.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the truth is that if you fake your way to fame, the markets will force you to make it. All the attention you attract will manifest that which you fake. That is just a law of the universe. And believe me, the way out is not a better character from a story. If you claim to be Jesus, the market will turn you into Ye. If you claim to be a Gangsta, the market will turn you into The Game. If you claim to be a drug dealer, the market will turn you into Jay-Z. If you claim to be a rapper, the market will turn you into Eminem or Lil Wayne. If you claim to be a saint, the market will turn you into Kendrick. And even if your character is mathematically engineered and you don’t even know who you claim to be, the market will turn you into Drake.
Attention is the fuel of manifestation. Only your imagination is the limit, so if you have hoarded a good amount of attention, don’t waste it on other people’s imagination. Just be Ye. Jesus is just a little bit of Kanye West; a single character among many in his mind. What's a King to a God? But since Kanye has already eaten from the forbidden tree. He now knows he is naked. And he cannot hide from God, even if he tries to play God. What's a God to non-believer? If he gets bored of Christianity, he should come back home and we'll show him the real thing.
