Back in April, Kanye West announced to the world he was going to roll out five albums in five weeks on his G.O.O.D Music label.
The Kanye-produced albums by Pusha T, Kanye himself, Kid Cudi, Nas and Teyana Taylor should have been a publicity coup for the troubled hip hop star, but the rollout has been marred by Kanye's comments on slavery and his apparent support for US President Donald Trump.
Kanye West Photo: 2016 Paul Natkin
Meanwhile controversy surrounds the album art on Pusha T’s release Daytona, and Nas’ ex-wife Kelis has talked about physical abuse she experienced during their marriage.
In an article for The Undefeated last month, US journalist David Dennis Jr wrote:
“In any [other] given year, this list of releases would engender unilateral excitement and rampant hip-hop head hysteria.”
But he told Music 101’s Alex Behan that the releases show how #MeToo-proof too much of hip hop culture is.
“Kanye’s stuck in this belief there’s no such thing as bad publicity, that you’ll get attention and you’ll dominate the news cycle.”
The release of Nas' album Nasir coincided with abuse allegations from singer Kelis.
“About a month before his album was set to drop his ex-wife Kelis came out and said that he was abusive, he was an alcoholic, he abused her, he beat her.
“Nas didn’t say a word, he was able to, but has not mentioned it, refuted it or even alluded to it. At some point you have to require that these guys say something to defend themselves or apologise.”
Dennis believes Pusha T’s Daytona was the strongest album musically of the five releases, but a last-minute cover art change showed a lack of taste and judgement. Kanye decided to pay $85,000 to license a paparazzi shot of Whitney Houston’s bathroom sink in complete disarray following one of her drug binges.
“It was really sort of a tasteless idea to do this. At the time when the picture was taken it was considered very exploitative of Whitney Houston and her problem - she was an addict.”
Dennis says Kanye doubled down on the original exploitation, and the cover art had no artistic relevance to the album - it was just an intrusion into the late singer’s life.
He says it shows the exploitation and of abuse of black women is a secondary consideration to the commercial aspirations of the world’s biggest hip hop stars.
“In the case of your Kanyes, your Chris Browns, your R Kellys - these are iconic heroes.
“In contrast when you’re dealing with black women, these are the lowest of the low. They’re the lowest on the totem pole in terms of how we treat them, how we respect them.
“If Nas had beaten Taylor Swift, I don’t think he’d ever be able to release an album for the rest of his life.”
He says it’s too convenient to ignore the voices of the accusers.
“It is really how do we view the accuser, how much do we revere the accused, and how little do we value the accuser.”
