Kanye West has been under fire a lot lately. First South Park made fun of his out-of-control ego in an episode which West said hurt his feelings, but was also a wake-up call and he promised to deflate his ego a bit. Not too long ago, his outbursts at VMA where he bumrushed the stage during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech earned him the questionable honor of inspiring one of the year’s most popular Internet memes. Murmus of West’s troubles have only gotten louder, as quite recently he canceled his tour. Meaning-wise, West has bee damaged goods for a while now.
The old way of diffusing this situation would have been for West to go on a few talk shows, publicly apologize to Swift and vow to change. In fact, initially that’s what he did. In the old days, the worst case scenario for West would have been that Saturday Night Live parodies the situation, and even that could have been handled with a guest appearance on the show later on. Problem solved.
But now we live in an age where meaning management is more nuanced and difficult. West’s meaning management efforts are in direct competition with those happening in social media channels, and the most intriguing and culturally relevant meaning will prevail. Going on Jay Leno’s show and saying you’re sorry is calculated, obvious, and uninteresting. It had no chance against the “I’ma let U finish” meme’s cultural momentum.
So what’s Kanye to do? One fairly good solution would have been to confront the meme head on, be seen in a “I’ma let U finish” T-shirt. West could have showed he was aware of his current perception, and he was willing to confront it and even make fun of himself. This, too, could have been seen as a callous and calculated effort though.
Instead, West has gone for something really bold and interesting, something that could in fact trump the meme. He has made a short film with Spike Jonze where he literally rips out his ego from his intestines, and kills it. See the video here.
We’ll see how this rather unusual but highly intriguing mea culpa plays out with the public.
UPDATE The video was taken down from Vimeo, but I posted a new link to it.
Recent Comments