Can God be banned from entering a country? Well, it is happening. I am a God is the title of a song by Kanye West. One day the musician was asked if the lyrics were autobiographical; and he said: “I am God, no further explanation needed. I am the biggest living star. I am Axl Rose, I am Jim Morrison, I am Jimi Hendrix.” The rapper is also currently the hot potato of music, with the involvement of governments and political parties. West’s European tour, now self-named Ye (Atlanta, Georgia, 48 years old), has become an aspirational act of faith (since we are talking about God) that never arrives. So far, concerts have been canceled in the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, and Poland. In Spain, it is announced for July 30 at the Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid. The date remains. “It is true that some concerts have been canceled, but in Spain it is still on, no problem. It is sad what is happening with the cancellations, because he has apologized many times. Each country has its way of seeing things. Also, sales are going well. There are still tickets left, but not many,” a spokesperson for Roller Group, one of the three promoters organizing the concert in the capital, told this newspaper. According to this source, the capacity will be about 60,000 spectators.
But what has the rapper apologized for? There would not be enough space to describe the messages on social media and in interviews with which he has offended different groups. There is glorification of Nazism: he has praised Hitler several times, titled a song Heil Hitler and designed shirts with swastikas; he also called the anti-racist Black Lives Matter movement a “scam” and designed a fashion collection with the slogan White Lives Matter; and he caused outrage with this other statement: “You hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years? That sounds like a choice.” These are just a few strokes of his multiple controversies.
Last January he published a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal apologizing and attributing his behavior to his diagnosis of bipolar disorder type 1, which caused a “four-month manic episode with psychotic, paranoid, and impulsive behavior.” “That destroyed my life,” he added.
However, he did not receive clemency. The UK government recently barred him from entering the country to headline a festival. In France, the rapper himself took the initiative and canceled the concert after the French Interior Minister, Laurent Nuñez, said he was seeking “legal measures to prevent it from taking place.” In Switzerland, the venue, owned by the Basel football club, backed out, stating: “In accordance with our values, we cannot offer a platform to the artist in this context.” And in Poland, the stadium also took the initiative, following a recommendation from the Polish Minister of Culture, Marta Cienkowska, who said: “In a country marked by the history of the Holocaust, we cannot pretend this is just entertainment.”
What is left for West? Turkey, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Italy, where there is already a strong pro-cancellation movement. And Spain, of course, where everything seems calm. For Diego Rubio (33 years old), director of the magazine Nuebo and critic for Rockdelux, there is “a strange political subtext” in this matter. “In all the countries that have banned him, there is an important Israeli lobby, either in governments or economic systems. In Spain, that lobby is not as powerful. If Spain decides not to let Kanye in, it is for an ethical or moral reason, but not a political one,” Rubio argues.
Asked by this newspaper, the Ministry of Culture dodges the issue and responds with three words: “Nothing to comment.” Neither the City Council nor the Community of Madrid, both from the PP, have made any moves. Óscar Fernández Rodríguez, coordinator of the Communication Area of Atlético de Madrid, owner of the stadium where the rapper is announced, tells EL PAÍS: “Our club has a contract with a music promoter, to whom we rent the Riyadh Air Metropolitano for this concert. The event has no other association with Atlético de Madrid or our stadium. In that sense, the Spanish promoter has not received any notification or communication from any Spanish public entity, so the plan for this concert remains unchanged.”
From here, Spanish music industry figures take a stand. Spanish rapper Frank T (53 years old) is blunt: “I think it’s good that he doesn’t come to perform. If that happens, I would applaud it, because there must be consequences when such an influential figure says such nonsense. He is still a person who can influence many people: we cannot overlook his words.” West only performed once in Spain, at the Razzmatazz club in Barcelona for about 2,000 people, 20 years ago. Things have changed a lot, and the artist no longer produces such innovative music. Also, his obsession with virality made him a, at least, unlikeable character some time ago. Miguel Robles, from the Spanish promoter Live In Dallas, says he would not commit to working with Ye: “I like to contribute my cultural grain of sand when I organize something, and Kanye right now only brings morbidity. But I wouldn’t participate in a movement to cancel him either. I prefer something on a personal level, like not buying the ticket.”
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Some downplay the situation, like hip hop journalist Alexia G. Ferrer (28 years old): “Considering a rapper a political thinker is a mistake. We are talking about a world where hate speech is allowed, where there are political parties that do not condemn what happened in Torre Pacheco, where ultras are associated with football teams and are part of society. Kanye is sick, with diagnosed drug addiction and bipolar disorder. Sometimes it is easier to condemn Kanye West than to be aware that there is a systematic structure that allows true barbarities to be said. I have not seen Kanye be part of any Nazi organization or participate in acts glorifying Nazism.”
Few specialists doubt West’s artistic value. Responsible for groundbreaking works like Late Registration (2005), My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010), or The Life of Pablo (2016), the influential English critic Simon Reynolds described him, and some will not like this comparison, as “the closest thing to a David Bowie today.” “They have the same ambivalent obsession with fame, but they also have the desire to pursue the avant-garde in music,” Reynolds added. West began standing out as a producer for figures like Jay Z or Janet Jackson and then launched himself as a solo artist, not without effort. His middle-class background closed many doors in an industry, the American hip hop scene, that demands street pedigree from its protagonists. Finally, it was Jay Z and his label Roc-A-Fella that signed the rapper.
Some aspects of his personality, like provocation or the need to be permanently in the digital conversation, have amplified over time. Critic Diego Rubio, who is not in favor of cancellation though he will not attend the Madrid concert due to “the outrageous price” (about 200 euros), reflects on shared responsibility: “We have known Kanye West for years, we know the mental problems he has, and we have all participated a bit in the spectacle at the expense of a person who is not well. I wonder to what extent the system has contributed to this man losing his mind.”
Is there any reason why hardly any voices have been raised against the concert in Spain? Frank T gives one: “The government intervened so that Spain would not participate in Eurovision as a protest against Israel’s presence because the festival is too popular. Maybe they don’t intervene in Kanye’s case because they consider he is not famous. In France or the UK, they know his relevance, and social and political activism there is much greater than in Spain. I feel sorry that in Spain we don’t stand up to something like this.” Specialist Alexia G. Ferrer offers another argument: “Spain has been a forgotten market for English-speaking hip hop; I suffer from it. Very few rappers come to perform because people don’t know English and can’t appreciate them. In Spain, we are more focused on Karol G and Bad Bunny.”
At the Metropolitano, if it finally takes place, West will bring the same show as in Los Angeles last April, where he sang atop a gigantic rotating globe situated in the center of the stadium. The critic from Pitchfork wrote about the concert: “An impressive staging and a apathetic, static, and uninspired performance that even tarnished his best songs.” The pendulum Kanye West at his maximum expression.
