Kanye West will perform at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in October, CNN reports. The news follows a political endorsement for Hillary Clinton from the rapper and his wife Kim Kardashian West, who tweeted a selfie with 2016 presidential candidate. West announced earlier this year that he plans to run for president in 2020. Fundraising for the DNC as well as Hillary Clinton could position West for an eventual presidential bid, presenting him with donors and party influencers.
West has called himself the “voice of a generation” and comparing himself to Steve Jobs, Andy Warhol, Mahatma Gandhi and other historical innovators. Time will tell if West, 38, can live up to his braggadocio.
But he’s clearly broken out of the entertainment box, branching out into culture, fashion and yes, even politics. Here are 4 of the artist’s most surprising political statements as we head into the 2016 election season.
1) “George W. Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
As Bush administration dropped the ball on relief following hurricane Katrina in 2005, Kanye West and other celebrities participated in live telethon fundraiser for the Red Cross. In his address, West criticized the actions of the National Guard, who shot alleged “looters,” including people foraging for survival from the wreckage.
2) “I’m running for president in 2020.”
Kanye announced the news in Vanity Fair and later repeated his intention to run in a speech at the 2015 VMAs. Hillary Clinton politely asked him to hold off if she were president running for a hypothetical second term the same year.
3) Ben Carson is a "brilliant guy."
The West-Carson bromance has escalated in recent days. Support for Carson might not have been surpirising if Kanye hadn't already showed so much love for Democrats.
“As soon as I heard [Ben] Carson speak, I tried for three weeks to get on the phone with him. I was like this is the most brilliant guy,” West told Vanity Fair for a Sept. 2015 issue.
Its either mixed messageing or partisan politics, supporting a top conservative Republican candidate while endorsing Clinton. Carson returned the love, saying that he and West spoke about the potential to produce more music with positive messages , and praising West’s “business acumen” (both of which remind us of Obama speaking about Jay-Z)
Caling politicians dumb and dreaming of utopia, West’s political lyrics sometimes sound like a mashup of the Beatles -- “I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one” -- and Donald Trump “Our politicians are stupid.” With that, we’ll leave you with West’s utopian vision, and stance on political correctness.
4) "I believe that utopia is actually possible—but we're led by the least noble, the least dignified, the least tasteful, the dumbest, and the most political. So in no way am I a politician—I'm usually at my best politically incorrect and very direct," said West in an address to Harvard graduates in 2013.
4.5) Not quite a quote, but it is worth noting that Kanye never rebuffed Trump’s claim that the artist “loves” him.
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