Following a barrage of rambling tweets since Saturday, rapper Kanye West on Wednesday added another dozen that began to suggest he was reconsidering past comments calling himself “the greatest living artist and greatest artist of all time.”
“Man, I was thinking about when I commented on the idea of ‘taking the rap throne,’ ” the 38-year-old music star wrote. “That statement hasn’t been sitting well with me . . . That’s a dated mentality . . . I’m not on that. . . . ” He said he now realizes that “every rapper is somebody’s favorite . . . Some rappers got the club . . . Some got the radio . . . some got the conscience . . . some got the streets . . . Everybody has something they do the best. . . . ”
He uncharacteristically went on to say, “A wise man should be humble enough to admit when he’s wrong and change his mind based on new information,” and then added — after a digression urging people to “stay on this Ultra Light Beam” of “positive energy” — that, “In rap we have been developing a brotherhood. . . . ”
He ultimately conceded, “My number one enemy has been my ego . . . there is only one throne and that’s God’s . . . ”
West also received much ribbing for initially misspelling “throne,” having written “there is only one thrown and that’s God’s.” He quickly corrected the error after many on social media took him to task. Wrote one, “I wonder if Kanye West watches Game of Throwns . . . #thrown #idiot #notagenius.”
Also on Wednesday, reports cited leaked audio of his alleged weekend rant on “Saturday Night Live.” The rapper reportedly compares himself in the expletive-laden temper tantrum to artists Stanley Kubrick, Pablo Picasso, biblical figure Paul the Apostle, Pablo Escobar and calls Taylor Swift insincere. People magazine reported that the alleged incident occurred after West became upset when stagehands dismantled part of his stage 30 minutes before “SNL” aired. On Friday, the rapper tweeted that he meant no disrespect to Swift after playing the song “Famous” during his Yeezy Season 3 fashion show/album listening party at Madison Square Garden the day before. In the song, West says of the pop diva: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / I made that [expletive] famous.” According to TMZ, Swift had seen the lyrics and had approved them. However, a spokesperson for the singer gave a statement to The New York Times’ music critic Jon Caramanica claiming that Swift was not happy about West’s song.
According to People, representatives for West and NBC did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the “SNL” incident.
Preceding Wednesday’s tweets were 30 on Tuesday in which, among other things, he bemoaned the high cost of textbooks for working families. He had posted three dozen tweets on Monday, including one requesting no “white publication . . . comment on black music anymore,” and another asserting his new album will never be available on iTunes but only through the subscription streaming service Tidal.
