KANYE WEST X FREDRICH NIETZSCHE — JONNY PENN
inquiring one of the five magazine cover slots; Kanye West was met, as with most of the decisions he makes, with a lot of opposition: many believe that his personality or attitude has no place in our society and should not be rewarded. But what is Kanye trying to say? In this article I will show that Kanye’s ideas bear remarkable parallels to 19 th Century German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and all the controversy that comes with him.
“ That don’t kill me, can only make me stronger ”
Stronger
Firstly any article depicting Kanye West and Nietzsche must give credit that one of Kanye West’s most popular songs “ Stronger ” literally quotes the quote attributed to Nietzsche in: “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” And any reading into that quotation will lead you to Nietzsche, but this is too simple. I wish to go further, that Kanye’s persona is the protégé of the
great German philosopher, and embodies the controversial ideas that have loomed over the
philosophical world.
Nietzsche critiques the morality of the Christian world, in short his major criticism is that
this morality has no reason behind it, the Christian tradition presupposes a debt upon us for our original sin. Kanye West himself feels this weight, stating once in an interview early in his career: “ I have accepted Jesus as my Saviour. And I will say that I fall short every day .” This idea Nietzsche finds in the Christian tradition is an idea that we feel guilt from not being able to repay Jesus for his payment for our sins; this produces a bad conscious in us, which is accelerated as we can never reach the bar that is set above us. The bad conscious becomes permanent and the debt humanity owes to God keeps us believing we are in a state of evil, falling short to the expectations made of
humans.
Nietzsche wishes to remove this conception of us being evil for whatever we do, and questions why we have concepts such as humility and pity, if they are any good outside of this Christian perspective. I hope you can accept with me that many people in the west, if not Christian, themselves are Christian cultured, and therefore take this morality to be our own. Taken normally humility is good. Selfishness and egocentricity are bad. We accept this: so what happens
when someone comes along with a platform and enough confidence to proclaim their own
greatness? Enter Kanye West, global superstar with an ego to show for it.
“ I’m living in the 21 st century doin’ something mean to it, Do it better than anybody you ever seen
do it ”
POWER
Nietzsche promotes the idea that we can be great, that there are people who are great,
introducing the idea of the “ Übermensch ”, the overman or superman who is better than others
and is set up for greatness. The Übermensch should not be suppressed or diluted, can’t be, even.
They will aspire to greatness and accumulate power, in a life-affirming way. If there has anyone
who views himself as an Übermensch , it’s Kanye West, frequently referring to himself as a God, as
the best, and equating himself to the level of Jesus in calling himself Yeezus. And Nietzsche would
agree with this, the Übermensch’s nature is to be the best, and to suppress it or play it down is a
crime to the nature of the being. Hence why the Christian morality is so flawed, it is not in our
interests to stamp out our “negative” qualities, we aspire to greatness in changing these into
greatness.
“ I’m trying to right my wrongs. But it’s funny them same wrongs helped me write this song. ”
Touch
the Sky
Kanye West’s albums appear to be a Nietzschean journey from the self-claimed Christian to
experimenting with the limits of this conceptual framework, any self-gratification from Kanye is
met with distaste from this Christian morality we’re so used to. But there is no reason for us to
value this morality, Nietzsche would argue.
Whether Kanye is arrogant seems at first to be a pretty easy question, most people
wouldn’t bat an eye before calling him arrogant. Arrogance in this sense meaning “ having or
revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities. ” I would be inclined to
disagree. Of course Kanye West has a sense of his own self-importance, and definitely feels like his
ability is superior to some of his contemporaries. But this isn’t necessarily unjustified, whatever
your opinion of him is, Kanye West is clearly successful and to be proud of that isn’t a bad thing.
From personal experience the message of self-worth is a very important one. We have a tendency
to internalise the rejection we get from others, making us feel insecure or unworthy. Nietzsche
would call this the slavish values, told to be humble and not think of ourselves as great, the
Nietzschean-West approach is to recognise that actually you can be great. You do not have to be
humble if you’re good at something: Do not put yourself down. Very few places to we get this
message, most of the time we take humility as good, that we have to keep ourselves down and
can never achieve the greatness which humanity is destined. No wonder there is outrage when
Kanye West states “ I am a God. ”
“ 50 told me go ‘head switch the style up, and if they hate then let ‘em hate and watch the money
pile up ”.
Good
Life
The controversy follows both of these figures, the backlash for subverting some of the
concepts that we hold very dear, proclaiming yourself as the greatest philosopher or as the
greatest living rockstar has a similar consequences in public opinion. And with both thinkers you
sometimes have weed through misogynistic and ignorant ideas, but at their cores, they are
shaking up how we conceive the world. And who’s got a better platform than Kanye West to show
this. Whether you like his music or his attitudes, Kanye West is a genius.
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