Kanye's self-proclaimed God-like grandeur coupled with his mediated persona have never allowed me to get past his image. Whether he was talking about listening to his own cd while relaxing at one of his many parties or was featured in the media stealing the moment of an innocent young white songstress, Kanye's larger-than-life ego has enabled me to subjugate his artistry to the role of background. For these reasons (and a list of others), my encounter with his blog this week caught me off guard.
After Kanye interrupted Swift, the media began to speculate about whether or not this outburst could be linked to psychological instability resulting from his mother's death. However, there was something more complex at work, something I was not able to see since I never cared enough to turn a critical ear to Kanye.
This element of insanity brought me back to Charles Mingus. He too was a larger-than-life figure often portrayed through his excessive lifestyle rather than his humanity. However, upon reading his book we were allowed to enter Mingus's world of music. A world that allowed him to take his fragmented identity, an identity that was placed upon him, and desperately find a way to not only make sense of this identity, but try to write himself whole in a world that denied his existence. In this sense, Mingus was essentially writing his way out of this world through his music, but perhaps what is most interesting about Mingus and Kanye is how the construction of them in the popular imaginary obscures the element of transcendence and political progressiveness that underscores their work.
In the construction of their worlds it is critical to remember that both Mingus and Kanye, develop another language, space and time that is only palpable to those with a double consciousness. Those who know the pain of being entrapped in a physical body that deems you unworthy. Those who know what it is like to live as the underdog.
Like Mingus, it is this position as underdog that gives rise to the perpetual need to create in order to invent a world that "brings the unrealistic to reality" through the magic of music. As Kanye makes evident in his blog, the hardest thing is too agree, to succumb to the night demons who try to control your hands and feet when all you want is to survive.
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