My Break Up with Kanye West

I sit on the bus with my Beats headphones on. I am an impressionable 15 year old on my way to my first freshman year baseball game. No Church in the Wild by Kanye West and Jay Z is blasting in my ears, possibly giving me ear damage. I didn’t care. I was pumped up like a boxer getting ready for a heavyweight championship bout. This was just the beginning of my love of Kanye. I thought he was going to be my favorite artist “For ever, ever. For ever, ever. Ever ever.” 

The College Dropout.

Graduation.

Watch the Throne.

The Life of Pablo. 

These albums were repeated through my phone for the majority of my high school years.  My end of the year recaps on Spotify were filled with Kanye. The album Ye came out and I was still enthralled by Kanye’s music.

In the words of Kanye, “There’s another hit. Barry Bonds.”

As the years went by my music taste began to change. I started listening to more and more Luke Combs and Zach Bryan and less and less Kanye West. I would run across Kanye West songs and the skip button was being hit more frequently. It was a somber day when I realized that my playlists no longer featured Kanye West.

I tried to like the new music that Kanye was putting out. I really did. I could not find my way to reverting back to the avid fan that I once was. There was a wave of emotion over me as Kanye was such an influential artist to me while I matured into the person I am today. 

To use another Kanye quote, “I miss the old Kanye.” 

Nowadays, Kanye is in the news at least once a week. From his multiple postponements of albums to his divorce of debatably the most famous woman in the world (Kim Kardashian for those living under a rock) to his public disputes with many well known celebrities. I haven’t bat an eye at any of Kanye’s actions over the past few years. Anyone with as much fame and talent as Ye can find themselves falling into a place that no one thought they would be. I sometimes wish his antics were the reason I stopped listening to him. It might have made it easier. Whenever I see his name on my Twitter feed, I fall back into the memory of me hearing the soft piano intro of Runaway that I would listen to at least once a day for a stretch of 6 months my sophomore year. 

A bit of nostalgia hit me as I walked into the voting booth for the 2020 election. I looked at the write in option and thought about how a handful years ago I would have written Kanye West down and told everyone I knew to prove my fandom. I chuckled as I realized. 

I had officially broken up with Mr. West.