Kanye West: I know why the cretin boy sings?*

Kanye West: I know why the cretin boy sings?*

Did Kanye West trod where the gods cannot dare by ‘comparing’ himself with Maya Angelou in his blog? Absolutely NO! Kanye West did not compare himself with anybody but was just writing his wish list for the New Year in the recording studio like anybody else would.

The fact that Kanye West wished to ‘follow in the footsteps of giants like Maya Angelou, Nina Simone and Gill Scott-Heron’ is an innocent statement that captures his career aspirations: to be counted amongst literary greats. Towards this end, he promised to "bring you the best I have to offer with the same dedication that Kobe [Bryant] has on the court." The media have deliberately obfuscated the facts and screamed ‘Kanye West compares himself with Maya Angelou’

It seems some people have bad blood with Kanye West and would utilize even the slightest of confusion to whip up emotions against him. True that many people took offence with his unbecoming behavior at the MTV Music Video Awards in September when he hijacked Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech but he immediately apologized to Taylor Swift, the public and subsequently took a low profile in remorse.

Why would not the media be fair to him?

Yahoo News even went ahead to highlight Kanye West typographical error in Gill Scott-Heron’s name purposefully to portray his supposed ignorance thus “… and Gill Scott-Heron (whose name West misspells "Herron")...” It even took issue with Kanye West’s use of capital letters. This is petty! Anybody can misspell such a name and since it is Kanye West blog, he can choose to use caps since it is not a scholarly paper.

It seems Kanye West anticipated this when he took a swipe at the media in his blog by encouraging fans to "soak in positive forces and look down upon those who masquerade as truth tellers… Look past the headlines and deal with just a bit of reality.” It cannot have been a better prebuttal.

Maya Angelou is comparatively a towering literary icon, civil right campaigner, lecturer and carries the tag of "America's most visible black female autobiographer" but still we cannot begrudge the fact that Kanye West is an acclaimed musician in his own right. He is young and maybe we are yet to see the last and best of him. He just stated his honest wish.

I will not be surprised at the negative media reviews that Kanye West or Chris Brown will receive in case they release a track. The media relishes on negativity even when the public are willing to forgive the small transgressions that celebrities make sometime just like all other mortals.

Is Kanye West guilty of comparing himself with Maya Angelou or innocent?

* A corruption of Maya Angelou’s autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)