How does it happen, that one day you are a revered musical artist, innovator and fashion empire-builder capable of turning everything you touch to gold, and the next you are a Trump-hugging, Holocaust-denying darling of the US far right, telling people that you hope Jewish children “look at their daddies and say ‘Why is Ye mad at us?’”? The Trouble With KanYe, the latest documentary by award-winning journalist Mobeen Azhar, sets out to answer not just this question – compelling though the evolution of musician Kanye-now-Ye West is – but the even more important one of where it might lead and what it might mean for us all.
Azhar takes us quickly but precisely through the milestones in West’s career. In 2003, he released his debut single and began his meteoric rise to fame, fortune and critical acclaim, selling millions of records, marrying Kim Kardashian and beginning a partnership with Adidas that would come to be worth billions. There were accusations of misogyny and the odd troubling remark – anti-Black, antisemitic – along the way, but nothing to scare the horses (or the sponsors).
