Kanye West began 2016 floating a run for the White House in 2020. He ended the year in another dramatic flourish — strutting into Trump Tower as perhaps the most unlikely ally of the president-elect.
And through all the antics, the year for Yeezy was at times as beautiful, dark and twisted a fantasy as ever.
That’s because the “Famous” rapper managed to remain remarkably relevant, if not for his music or his fashion line, than for a string of public and erratic outbursts that propelled him into the national conversation in unprecedented ways.
Next year, West turns 40, but don’t expect anything to change. The controversial rapper remains poised to keep people guessing and just as engaged as they were in 2016.
A Year Defined by Politics
West, who never said which political party, if any, he’d be affiliated with should he ever run for president, projected the utmost confidence that he is up to the task despite never having held public office.
A HuffPost/YouGov poll from last year suggested that only 6 percent of Americans would even consider voting for West.
Although West donated to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign and appeared to take shots at Trump, he retroactively endorsed the president-elect during an erratic concert in Sacramento, California, in November. He also criticized frequent collaborator Jay Z, Beyoncé and President Barack Obama — then stormed off the stage after declaring, “I’m on my Trump sh*t tonight.”
West went on to have an unexpected face-to-face meeting with Trump at Trump Tower earlier this month to discuss “bullying, supporting teachers, modernizing curriculums and violence in Chicago.” He left with a handshake and a signed copy of Trump’s TIME Person of the Year cover.
Trump has insisted that he and West are “great friends.”
“Kanye West hugging President-elect Trump is not how most of us expected 2016 to end,” said Zack O’Malley Greenburg, a Forbes entertainment writer and author of the Jay Z biography “Empire State of Mind.”
“Yeah, I think it’ll lose him some fans, but will it kill his career? I don’t think so. Kanye has made a brand out of making people uncomfortable, for better or worse.”
Meanwhile, West walked away from their conversation with an apparently different perspective on his political future, simply tweeting: “#2024.”
A Year Defined by Scandals
The Chicago rapper’s embrace of Trump, who has been dogged by criticism for racially charged and anti-Muslim rhetoric during the 2016 campaign, amused and alienated many of his fans and peers in the music business.
But it was just one of several controversial episodes from 2016.
“I think this was supposed to be the year that Kanye got his affairs in order. But what kind of ended up happening was something very different,” Greenburg said. In the end, 2016 ended up being a year of missed opportunities for him.”
In February alone, Kanye said that embattled comedian Bill Cosby was innocent of the numerous allegations of sexual assault lodged against him (Cosby has also denied the charges), and he asked Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to help him pay off a purported $53 million debt.
In a video leaked from a “Saturday Night Live” rehearsal, the rapper boasted that he was “50 percent” more influential than any other artist living or dead, including Pablo Picasso, drug kingpin Pablo Escobar and filmmaker Stanley Kubrick.
Speaking of Picasso, West named his latest critically acclaimed album, “The Life of Pablo,” after the iconic painter. But that LP’s botched rollout — it was initially supposed to be released exclusively on Jay Z’s music streaming platform Tidal, but was undermined by leaks and eventually found its way onto iTunes — somewhat overshadowed its content.
On that album, West resurrected his years-long feud with singer Taylor Swift, rapping that he made her famous and that, despite being a married father of two, he “might still have sex” with the singer.
West and his reality star wife, Kim Kardashian, would later provide audio of a phone conversation with Swift as proof that she signed off on the lyrics, an assertion the Grammy-winning pop star has called into question.
A Year Defined by Health Concerns
Public feuds aside, there have been legitimate worries from fans about West’s well-being.
His November concert rant in Sacramento preceded an extended hospital stay for exhaustion, according to his representatives. The rest of West’s ongoing “Life of Pablo” tour (21 arena dates) was canceled indefinitely, but that doesn’t mean he will be slowing down.
“Trying to predict what Kanye will do next is kind of a fool’s errand,” Greenburg added. “I think the only thing you can predict is that he is going to be unpredictable.”
In other words, the road to #2024 could be the start of a whole new West — and not just a White House run.
트레져스 오브 아즈텍
산사태가 일어나기 전부터 땅이 흔들렸지만 공포의 기색은 없었다.
더 트위티 하우스
“폐하, 아마도 불일치는 없을 것입니다. 두 숫자는 일치합니다.”
레거시 오브 데드
“오래된 송곳니, 우리 방법이 믿을만 한가요?”
에그벳슬롯
그러나 곧 그는 홍지황제의 시선이 자신을 엄하게 바라보고 있음을 알아차렸는데…
슬롯 사이트
Li Zheng은 엄숙하게 절했습니다. “폐하가 너무 친절해서 절대 잊지 않고 죽음으로 갚겠습니다.”
카지노 슬롯
나는 이 상자에서 눈부시게 배열된 것들을 보았는데, 그것들은 모두 다양한 봉인이었습니다.
프라그마틱 슬롯 무료
Daming Palace에는 Meridian Gate와 Daming Gate도 있으며 모든 관리는 Daming Gate에서 기다리고 있습니다.
맥심 슬롯
“바로 거기야!” Yang Biao는 “북동쪽으로”라고 신나게 말했다.
슬롯 추천
그는 이제 매우 자유롭습니다. 결국 판매자는 향을 피우고 23 시간 동안 휴식을 취합니다.
777 슬롯
이것은… 역시 사람들의 상상을 초월합니다.
안전한 슬롯 사이트
왜 그들은 돈을 벌기가 항상 그렇게 쉬운가요?
레프리칸 리치스
그러나 皇告으로 임명되었고, 秦朱 新儒는 科詞의 유일한 논평이었다.
https://maps.google.com.tr/url?q=https://etextpad.com/v1dqu8omgf
777 슬롯
작은 내시가 작은 발걸음으로 밖으로 나왔습니다. “그의 전하와 치공이 도착했습니다.”
보증 토토
주변의 모든 배들이 눈앞에 두부 같았습니다.
맥심 슬롯
Fang Jifan은 그를 흘끗 보더니 “궁으로 가십시오. “라고 말했습니다.
더굿 토토 사이트
결국 Liu Er은 작은 아파트에 착지하고 “이것”이라고 고개를 끄덕였습니다.
슬롯 게임
마차가 굴러가는 순간 Liang Ruying의 몸이 얼어 붙었습니다.
신규 토토 사이트
Wang Bushi는 포효하고 속이 빈 벽돌을 들고 Fang Jifan을 찾아 돌아 다녔습니다.
미성년자 토토 사이트
Hongzhi 황제는 미소를 지으며 소파에 기대고 침묵했습니다.
황제 슬롯
두 군주와 신하들은 갑자기 대화가 죽은 것 같은 느낌에 눈을 동그랗게 뜨고 바라보았다.
에그벳 주소
Ouyang Zhi는 꾸준히 Nuan Pavilion에 들어가 서두르지 않고 경의를 표했습니다.
토토 메이저 사이트
“상대가 무기를 사용한다면?” 주후조가 머리를 긁적였다.