Dear Kanye,
We are honored to be writing such an important star. We are not sure
if we are worthy enough to address you, but we’ve been fans since day
one. You have been a successful rap artist for a decade now and are coming off a year for the record books. We wish you and your family nothing but more success and more life. Anyway, please excuse our interference in your life for a quick second. We have been meaning to write you this letter for quite some time now, but after sitting through WRT 205 for a whole semester, we knew it was the right time. Being as famous as you are comes with a lot of status and responsibility. You have millions of fans who look up to you and adore everything you do as I’m sure you know, but with great power comes great responsibility and great responsibility means being a good influence on your fans, Mr. West.
In your lyrics, you promote masculinity in a problematic way, more specifically: carefree living, disrespecting women, hubris, power, and wealth as the most important things in life that you should strive to achieve. Kids will listen to anything popular, so when you rap about “drunk and hot girls” asking them “not to fall asleep”, people will strive to imitate your lifestyle and then a passed out, “drunk girl” gets raped at a party. This is not the way a man should live his life and it promotes real problems that society is desperately trying to rid itself from every day. All these lyrics are from the same Kanye West song titled: Drunk and Hot Girls.
Obviously we can’t force you to change the way you write your lyrics; all we ask is that you would consider the changes in the world it would make if you did. Another problem with your lyrics is it teaches kids to be self-centered and not to put others before themselves. Masculinity shouldn’t be a selfish role. Life should be about acceptance and selflessness, so instead of writing a song named “I Love Kanye” and rapping about yourself for 45 seconds, maybe make a song called “I love the World” and rap about the good in the world.
Your whole album “Yeezus” compared yourself to a God, especially seen in the song “I am a God.” This teaches kids to strive to have hubris and power rather than living a humble life and actually making a difference in the world. Instead of promoting changing the world through violence and crime, you should be promoting changing yourself for the better which can in turn change the world for the better.
“When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.
Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.” -unknown monk 1100A.D
Fashion is a multi-billion dollar industry, as I’m sure you know. Your Yeezy fashion line is a massive hit for everyone. Even people who aren’t a fan of your music will spend hundreds of dollars on a new pair of yeezy shoes or a plain white yeezy t-shirt.
Kanye, you have so much influence over the future of the world. Use this influence to teach how to be a good person and how to make the world a better place. Maybe this letter will reach you and if it does maybe you will read it. If you’ve gotten this far, Kanye, please think about changing your way of writing to help millions, if not billions, of people live a more satisfying life. Promote masculinity in a positive way that is beneficial to the world.
