“He finally got to the top of the world and it blew right up in his face.”
Kanye West, now named Ye, made it to the top of the world. Through a bad accident, the death of a loved one, and a psych ward experience, he kept climbing to the top. He married the woman of his dreams, and they have four beautiful children. But his outspoken, over-the-top characteristics that helped him climb to the top also led the way to his implosion.
When I was reading about Ye a few weeks back when his world imploded, an image of James Cagney playing Cody Jarrett (White Heat, 1949) came to mind.
“TOP OF THE WORLD, MA!” Cody Jarrett yelled from the top of a gas storage tank tower. Cody was a bigger-than-life criminal gangster on the run from the police.
Ye, a successful music producer, rapper and fashion designer, thought he could never lose his top-of-the-world status as he dared Adidas to drop their partnership with him after his public anti-Semitic comments.
“The thing about me and Adidas is like, I can literally say antisemitic s*** and they can’t drop me. I can say antisemitic things and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?” West said during his interview.
Police shot at Cody. Cody shot back, hitting the gas tanks. He’d rather go down in an explosion than surrender.
Looking up at Cody, detective Hank Fallon said, “He finally got to the top of the world, and it blew right up in his face.”
That’s what happened to Ye. The world blew up in his face.
Like Cody, Ye’s mom was his number one supporter. The one person he could trust the most. She encouraged him to go for his dreams. Also like Cody Jarret’s mom, Ye’s mom died unexpectedly. And that’s where Cody and Ye’s similarities end. Well, sort of.
Cody was a psychopathic criminal gangster. Psychologically, some might think Ye’s not much different than Cody Jarrett.
After a string of anti-Semitic comments, Ye’s lucrative fashion partnerships ended–Vogue, Balenciaga, Adidas–and KABOOM his billionaire status was gone. His partnership with Gap ended weeks prior separate from the anti-Semitic controversy.
Like Cody Jarret, Ye was willing to go down in flames.
Ye’s climb to the top wasn’t easy so why would he allow it to blow up in flames?
Ye’s Climb to the Top
As a successful producer, rapper and fashion designer, he won multiple awards and inspired millions not just because of his achievements but because of his outspoken, bigger-than-life personality. After numerous collaborations in the fashion world, he reached billionaire status.
He worked, created, and fought his way to the top.
When he was producing beats for rappers and other artists, he wanted to be a rapper. He wasn’t given an opportunity because he was from the suburbs, never sold drugs and didn’t have a tough enough image. But he pushed his way through and made it. Top of the world, Ma!
He wanted to step outside the rapper boundary and create fashion designs but wasn’t quickly received in the fashion world. In Kanye style, he complained publicly and didn’t give up. He eventually became a partner and collaborator with Nike, Adidas, Gap and Balenciaga, creating designs for shoes, clothing and accessories. He was the first non-athlete to have a shoe deal with Nike. His accomplishments are enormous. His successes weren’t handed to him. It was a hard climb.
Why would he work so hard to get what he wanted and risk throwing it all away because of controversial outbursts?
A Car Crash, A Death, A Psych Ward
In addition to various struggles on his way to the top, Ye experienced three major challenges.
In 2002 he had a bad car accident, requiring parts of his jaw to be wired shut during the healing process. But it was through this tragic accident that he struck gold. In the middle of this crisis, he wrote Through The Wire, the debut single on his first rap album, The College Dropout, which won several awards. He was finally known and accepted as a rapper.
His mother died in 2007. Ye’s mother was his closest confidant. The one who listened and encouraged him to pursue his dreams. She died from complications after cosmetic surgery. Kanye blamed himself for her death feeling she’d still be alive if he hadn’t pursued his music career. If he hadn’t made it to the top, living the celebrity lifestyle in LA, perhaps she would never have wanted cosmetic surgery. Some say he hasn’t been the same since she died.
In 2016 Kanye was admitted to a psych ward and diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Ye was at the home of his trainer, and 911 was called because he was behaving erratically. He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance, handcuffed to a gurney and placed on an involuntary psychiatric hold. He has spoken openly about the experience.
These tough challenges show Ye’s strength and ability to keep going and not allow difficulties to hold him back.
The Woman of His Dreams
Seven years after his mother’s death, and two years before his psych ward experience, Ye married the woman of his dreams, in 2014. He and Kim Kardashian have four beautiful children.
In the middle of the marriage, Ye moved to Wyoming without his family. He struggled with porn addiction. He cheated on his wife. Ye ran for U.S. President in 2020. In his presidential campaign speech, he spoke publicly, without his wife’s permission, about their private consideration to abort their first child (they ultimately chose not to).
In February of 2021 his wife filed for divorce. Ye blames his failed marriage on his presidential run and addiction to porn.
Ye lost one important woman in his life–his mom. And now another–his wife.
After each loss, his behaviors seem to have become more extreme.
Since his wife filed for divorce, Ye took things to a whole new level. After trying to win her back to no avail, He aimed online attacks and threats toward her new boyfriend and anyone else who said anything against his actions. It got so outrageous that at one point he was briefly suspended from social media.
Ye’s way of handling his emotions is through rants, name calling and anything he believes will emotionally hurt the person who he believes hurt him.
When his ex-wife and boyfriend broke up, Kanye found another battle to take on. Or perhaps the battle found him. I’m not sure. It depends on how you look at it. This is the battle that ended it all.
He Crossed The Line
Ye was angry with one or some Jewish business associates over contractual issues and money. He never gave details, but on social media and in interviews, he ranted about it and blamed issues he had with one or a few on the whole Jewish culture.
Suddenly, everything changed.
A line was crossed.
All hell was about to break loose for Ye. Little did he know, his world was about to implode.
Ye was now labeled an anti-Semite.
Kanye stormed the stage when Taylor Swift won an award. He said President George W. Bush doesn’t care about Black people. He’s made remarks about Black people. Recently, he promoted a White Lives Matter shirt, the antithesis of Black Lives Matter. He said slavery was a choice (even though I believe he meant a slavery mentality, not physical slavery). He said George Floyd died from a drug overdose not a police officer’s knee on his neck. Ye threatened his ex-wife’s boyfriend online numerous times. He called his mother-in-law Kris Jong Un, comparing her to the dictator of North Korea. He wore a crown of thorns on his head like Jesus, on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
But none of those things brought his world to a pile of rubble.
I don’t know if he had ever made remarks against Jewish people before, but this time he did. That’s the line we now know Ye should have never crossed.
He’s no longer outrageous Ye, but anti-Semitic Ye.
Ye said he lost $2 billion dollars in a day because of cancelled partnerships.
In addition to canceled partnerships in the fashion world, so many others have cut ties with him– a major booking agency; a film and tv studio canceled a completed documentary about him; and the school he founded, Donda Academy, named after his mother, closed its doors.
Anything associated with Ye took a hit. Those affiliated with him were pressured to cut ties with him.
Everything went up in flames, and the fire is still smoldering.
Can Ye Survive This Implosion?
Kanye West has learned that it’s okay to have public outbursts because it’s been accepted and even looked up to for so long. Maybe he didn’t know about the forbidden line he was to never cross. Or maybe he did but felt controlled. Or he was so angry about whatever he was angry about that he dared to cross the line anyway.
Whatever it is, his life has imploded. He’s now labeled an anti-Semite. Much of the world has turned its back on him.
In the celebrity world, it’s popular today to offer apologies on demand. When you say something deemed inappropriate by the powers that be, you’re expected to apologize immediately. But those are pseudo-apologies. A sincere apology isn’t given because someone demands that you apologize like you demand a two-year-old to apologize for throwing sand at a friend.
Ye offered an apology, but I guess it was too late.
So, where does Ye go from here?
An implosion is when something collapses from within. When a building implodes, its structure is destroyed. If you want another building, it has to be rebuilt.
Likewise, Ye needs to start over…to rebuild. Of course, he still has his music and God-given talent, dreams, and ideas. But as a person, a human made in God’s image, he needs to stop and take a good look at himself–mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
He continues to do interviews with whoever will provide him a microphone. By doing so he continues to add fuel to the fire. He needs to step back from the spotlight and be still.
Kanye says he’s a Christian. As a Christian myself, I know that God always leads me to examine my heart. It’s time for Kanye to examine his heart and seek true direction from God.