In a blog post a couple of days ago, Russell ‘Def Jam’ Simmons defended Kanye‘s often baffling behaviour and his apparent self-obsession, describing him as a genius.
The post, which is a bit convoluted, seems to basically explain that while it may appear that Ye is just out for himself, he is actually an artist who “desperately wants to leave his imprint in the history books” not for himself, but in some sort of altruistic way that destroys the “glass ceiling” and makes this world a little easier for those “who have been dealt a hand of struggle” by showing them a “glimmer of hope”.
Frankly all Simmons, the third richest figure in hip hop, manages to do is appear about as removed from reality as most of think Ye is. He continues:
So, you may think he’s mad when he goes on his “Yeezy rants,” but it is a different kind of mad…One who wants to uplift his people to the top of the mountain, so in unison, they can chant from the top of their lungs, “No One Man Should All That Power!” He is fighting for his generation, his people, his country, his planet earth….like a motherfuckin’ monster!
We will no longer be lost in the world and we will survive in this America. I believe these truths to be self-evident. That is what Kanye West told me on a cold morning in New York City just seven days ago. It is his genius, his tenacity, his creativity, his relentlessness and his madness, that will allow us all to one day have the ability to touch the sky.
To Simmons’ credit, he did manage to fit a whole lot of seemingly disparate song titles and hooks into a rather long and apparently cohesive blog post, but fundamentally all he has done is tried to explain to the little people that Kanye becoming desperately famous is in everyone’s best interests.
Matt Derody
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