Nile Lansana says his nearly bulletproof love for Kanye West Chicago has eroded after years of admiration. The Chicago interdisciplinary artist, performer and educator wrote that West’s fall from grace has been hard to watch.
Lansana grew up in Chatham off 79th and Cottage Grove, where “Amazing” and “Touch the Sky” played on pre-game car rides to middle school soccer and basketball games. In high school, “Champion” followed every poetry slam bout he and his peers won, and West’s music shaped the earliest days of his writing.
Chatham, 79th, and Cottage Grove
“Why are we asking for donations?” Lansana wrote at the start of the piece, then traced how close the connection once was. He said West’s mother, Donda West, was a family friend, and that he watched the “Jeen-Yuhs” documentary when it dropped. Those details put the split in plain view: this is not a casual listener stepping away, but someone who grew up with West’s work wired into daily life.
Lansana said he felt betrayed and bamboozled when West stood with Donald Trump. He unfollowed West on all platforms and boycotted his music for years, then said it has been a decade now and not much has changed. He also pointed to “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people” and quoted “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” — “I feel the pressure under more scrutiny. And what I do? Act more stupidly!” — as part of the record he has been carrying around while reassessing West.
West, Trump, and White Lives Matter
Lansana said West said slavery was a choice, wore a “White Lives Matter” shirt with Candace Owens, made comments about Adolf Hitler, and was sued for sexual harassment by his former assistant. He acknowledged that West has dealt with grief and mental health struggles, but said those struggles are not excuses for the racist, hateful and violent comments he has made. That is the break point: admiration for the music remains legible, but loyalty to the public figure does not.
Lansana also tied the image of West in “Touch The Sky” to the larger collapse, describing him as cosplaying Evel Knievel and taking the Death Rocket to touch the sky before the rocket plummets and explodes. He said West reached global superstardom, financial freedom, accolades galore, and undeniable musical influence on generations to come, then asked a sharper question than nostalgia usually allows: whether the work can keep carrying the name once the behavior has changed this much.
