Idk, imo this Kanye is the same as every version of Kanye that came before him, an extremely flawed and interesting human being.
100% agree.
Jesus is a helluva drug for a lot of people and maybe that drug is more of an influence now than it used to be. I've read some of the posts about him here and elsewhere and it strikes me how much we (myself included) are willing to remotely diagnose Kanye, and then use that diagnosis to define him and as an excuse for or to judge his dumb opinions simultaneously with the perceived quality of his music.
I'm sure we all listen to a lot of artists who are real assholes in the real world, but we know a lot less about the shitty things they do. I mean we all know that Bowie had sex with under-aged girls and that Dylan is an ego-maniac, and that James Brown smoked crack, beat his wife, and supported Nixon. John Lennon was a controlling, domestic-abuser, and we all mostly ignore that shit. Yes, Kanye's behavior is very of the moment, but how will we view it in 20 or 30 years?
People want Kanye to be the guy that made College Dropout, and the guy the evolved to make 808's and MBDTF, and the guy that evolved to make Yeezus. They also want him to represent their politics and not be a rich-guy asshole. It's kind-of strange to expect him to be all of those things at once but somehow he is. It's just a lot to expect...I'm not defending him or any of those other people.
I wonder if some folks would feel differently about this album if he just called it Yeezus is King? Making it about a mostly fairy-tale figure, and i have no idea if this is intentional or not, is very on the nose.
Note: I have no opinions about the quality of this album. I might listen to it at some point but it's way down the list for me.