Is Kanye West finished after Adidas cuts ties over anti-Semitic comments?

OPINION:

Is Kanye West done? Has the controversial motor-mouthed superstar rapper-producer-fashion mogul finally gone so far beyond the bounds of respectability that he has effectively cancelled himself, alienated his fanbase, offended his allies, trashed his own businesses, burned his bridges and utterly destroyed what was left of his career, never to be redeemed?

To recap, West has been making outrageous anti-Semitic remarks, which included a threat to go “death con 3″ on Jewish people. The furore started when West unveiled WHITE LIVES MATTER T-shirts at his Paris fashion show earlier this month, then appeared to accuse fellow rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs of being “controlled by Jews.”

As his remarks drew condemnation, more conspiratorial, racist and virulently anti-Semitic comments emerged from recent interviews, including claims that he was being targeted by the “Jewish media” and “Zionist Jews”. He boasted on a podcast that he could “literally say anti-Semitic s*** and (Adidas) can’t drop me”. During a televised Piers Morgan interview to explain himself, West seemed confused and manic as he both apologised then doubled down on anti-Semitic remarks.

Then came the response as he was dropped by his agency CAA, banned from social media sites Twitter and Instagram, and had business contracts and sponsorship agreements terminated by Balenciaga, The Gap and Adidas. His waxwork has been removed from Madame Tussauds and – perhaps most humiliatingly of all – he was escorted from the headquarters of the shoe company Skechers after showing up without an appointment. At a stroke, West lost his treasured billionaire status, with Forbes estimating that his wealth had been “reduced” to $400 million overnight, mainly based on real estate, cash and his music catalogue.

So while West’s not exactly broke, he does appear to have finally achieved a level of toxic pariah status from which it is hard to see a way back. Music, of course, has been his core brand on which everything else is based, but even that appears under threat. Apple Music have removed West’s branded playlists, and it can’t be long before other streaming services follow suit (as Spotify did with jailed R’n’B singer R Kelly) making his work less visible and hard to access.

West self-released his last album, Donda 2, via an item of experimental tech, the Stem Player. One result was that the album did not feature on any record charts around the world and did not generate any hit singles. Meanwhile, West’s GOOD MUSIC label is in a long-term contractual dispute with Universal, and it is hard to see that global multinational welcoming him back with open arms.

Except: haven’t we been here before? As recently as 2020, West launched a US presidential bid apparently convinced he had been directed to do so by both God and Donald Trump, his short-lived campaign being a chaotic disaster shot through with outrageous statements, audience confrontation, high emotion, threats and tears - mostly West’s. It effectively ended with West’s hospitalisation. At the time, his then wife Kim Kardashian cautioned that West suffers from bipolar disorder and noted “those who are close with Kanye know his heart and understand his words (sometimes) do not align with his intentions.”

West is a divisive character who has inspired a lot of debate about whether he is a genius or a madman, as if he can’t be both. He has been arguably the most ambitious, bold, progressive and influential producer in the most pervasive musical genre of the 21st century, a brilliant, satirical rapper who has completely exploded the boundaries of hip hop. But there can be no doubt that he suffers from mental illness. He has conducted his whole career with the giddy see-sawing emotions of a manic depressive, justifying the wackiness of his public behaviour with the audacious brilliance of his art.

Kanye and Kim at the 2015 BET Honors event. Picture / Facebook

In 2019, West candidly discussed his mental health with TV host David Letterman on the Netflix show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. West spoke of episodes when “I feel a heightened connection with the universe when I’m ramping up. It is a health issue. This is like a sprained brain, like having a sprained ankle.”

West has survived thus far because the quality of his work has been outstanding, but it does require the sympathetic indulgence of collaborators, business partners and ultimately audiences. It seems that sympathy has finally eroded. Many current commentators have adopted the position that mental illness cannot be used as an excuse for racism, albeit a more nuanced reading might at least note that it can certainly be a contributory factor. West’s brand of anti-Semitism is incredibly confused, particularly given that he often insists all American black people including himself are Jews, essaying some nonsense about “the 12 lost tribes of Judah.”

In that Letterman interview, West said that during a manic episode, everything can feel like “a conspiracy … You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you’re being recorded. You feel all these things.” Right now, West is in the grip of a manic delusion that has utterly torpedoed his own career.

There are interesting questions to be asked about the borderlines between madness and art but I am not sure now is the right time to ask them. West needs to be hospitalised for his own good. His remarks deserved to be censured. But if he were to emerge from this state and apologise with real contrition, what then? Would a society with a growing awareness of issues of mental health welcome him back as quickly as we have shut him down?

I have loved the ground-breaking, beautiful, funny, strange music of Kanye West, even as it becomes harder to justify with every twist of his career, turning supporters into apologist for so much transparent and abhorrent nonsense. I do think this might well be the end for West, purely because his latest transgressions are so abhorrent. But if any artist is brilliant and audacious enough to turn this around, it might just be Kanye West. While my head says it’s over for Kanye, my heart faintly hopes not.