What is art? Who are artists? How can artists get the resources they need to create the things that need creating? These are questions that might be prompted by Kanye West's recent string of radio interviews. Also: Is Kanye our generation's Andy Warhol? Our Shakespeare? Our Walt Disney? Does he need modern Medicis to fund him? Should he fund himself? These are other questions raised by these interviews, particularly one passionate stretch around the 17-minute mark of Kanye's interview with Sway Calloway on Shade 45.
Who has the answers to these questions? According to Kanye, it's not Sway. To quote: "You ain't got the answers, Sway!" Then who really does have the answers? Not Kanye, either, because he's been asking these questions for a while.
But what are questions, ultimately? What are answers, even? What is reality? Do any of us have the answers? If an answer is given in the forest and there's no one there to hear it, was the question ever really asked? How come they're called answering machines when all they do is let other people leave questions for you to call them back about? Are we all just answering to the machines, really, when you think about it? Also, does anyone have answering machines anymore? Without answering machines, would the plots of most Seinfeld episodes be possible today? What if Seinfeld were still on TV? I'm asking because I'm not sure. Does anybody make real shit anymore?
More importantly, though: What is a meme? Is it something ephemeral that should be left to capture our attention for a day and then vanish, like a flimsily conceived parody Twitter account? Is it something that should live on forever in the nebulous expanse of the cloud, Vined and re-Vined for perpetuity? Is it very question, much ask, such perplex? Is it this:
Yes, obviously it's that. Of course Kanye's impassioned rant during that interview was destined to launch a thousand memes. As mentioned above, none of us really know the answers, least of all Sway. Well, pardon Sway, but he just used two lifelines, and he took to MTV RapFix today to set the record about his interview with Kanye straight, calling Kanye his "little brother" and explaining how he felt about the on-air dispute:
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He added, however, that there was "one thing I didn't necessarily agree with," which, of course, was the suggestion that Sway—a man of many answers—did not have the answers. Who has the answers? Sway has the answers. And you can, too, for just $15 at Swaysuniverse.com, where the best t-shirt ever is now on sale:
Order your shirts now at http://t.co/twXI5oCRyj pic.twitter.com/qESdLZW63r
Okay, you may be saying at home, already lining up the questions, but how do we know for sure Sway has the answers? Didn't Kanye just say he doesn't have them? Wasn't it just established that the very nature of questioning and answering is fluid and that ultimately reality is subjective? Would Socrates approve? Look, no one has all those answers. But Sway did bring his famous Kanye-provided TV, suggesting that he is, at least, willing to see both sides of whatever answers he may or may not have.
Check out the RapFix segment above, and find the full interview below:
One part of Kanye's message that may be worth questioning a little further was a claim he made during his interview on Power 105's "The Breakfast Club." While most of the "controversy" around that interview in the hip-hop world revolved around Charlamagne tha God's point-blank assertion that he didn't like Yeezus, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz picked up on a different part of the interview:
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This report grabbed the attention of the Anti-Defamation League, the nonprofit dedicated to combating anti-Semitism, which noted that the comments played into longstanding negative stereotypes about Jews. The organization's national director, Abraham H. Foxman, issued a statement Monday calling out Kanye's statement as "classic anti-Semitism," going on to say:
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Is this what Kanye was really saying? Does his casual prejudice against Jews undermine his broader message? Is the ADL right or is it missing the point? Can DJ Envy get his daughter an internship at the radio station, as Kanye wonders? The answers remain, as ever, elusive.
Find the full interview below, with the comments in question around the 32:30 mark:
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