Stockholm Spectator’s Michael Moynihan today lashes out at artist Kanye West for having the nerve to both criticize world leaders and living a luxury life sipping Kristal at the same time.
Moynihan writes that during Live 8 “it was left to mumbling rapper Kayne West [sic!] to vent outrage at “the politicians” who “drive around in their Bentleys while Africa starves.” Then Moynihan is “shocked” when he reads an article where West complains at not being quite as rich and famous as he would want to be.
Moynihan’s reaction might have been well founded if it hadn’t been for the fact that West, while certainly living la dolce vita, also reaches out to the less fortunate. He is very active in the black community especially where the youth are concerned, by for example founding the Kanye West Foundation which is “dedicated to combating the dropout problem in the nation’s schools with compelling music programs. “Loop Dreams, the first initiative of the Kanye West Foundation, is designed to support the fight to keep instruments in the schools, and to provide opportunities for “at-risk”; students to learn how to write and produce music while simultaneously improving their academic skills.”
Maybe it’s just a small thing, maybe even too small if your net worth is in triple digits of millions of dollars, but in my book that does give West the right to criticize others who do less. And while this initiative doesn’t help the starving millions in Africa (but his appearance at Live 8 might), I bet there are other artists at Live 8 who do even less. But of course, it is difficult to fact check if you can’t spell the name of the person you are blasting. This piece of information is on the front page of www.kanyewest.com.
