This year, there has been no spectacle in popular culture more grotesque than the unravelling of Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. But why stop at this year? We have seen other stars make racist statements, experience career-ruining scandals or psychologically disintegrate in public, but to witness all three converge in extremis over two months is unprecedented.
It should spell career suicide. But Ye has ended the year in the top five most-streamed artists of 2022 on Spotify in the UK and the US. His 2021 album Donda is No 43 on Billboard’s chart of the year’s most popular albums. When he isn’t suspended from Twitter, he has 30.6m followers there. As he well knows, media outlets track his every move. People aren’t only still listening; they’re watching, too. Despite being on an apparently terminal course, Ye isn’t about to disappear: this is just the latest chapter in his mission to test the public’s threshold for disgust.
