Nick Cave still likes Kanye West’s music despite the rapper’s controversial views.
The singer replied to a fan’s letter on his Red Hand Files blog after saying he wanted Kanye West’s ‘I Am a God’ played at his funeral. Since then, West’s comments about being a Nazi and selling a swastika shirt caused more outrage. One fan asked Cave, “How the hell can you listen to the song without seeing the scum of a human being that Kanye has become?”
“Numerous letters have come in expressing, in no uncertain terms, disapproval of my fondness for Kanye West’s music,” Cave wrote in his response. “A lot of time and energy has been spent explaining the evil of Nazism, the harm of antisemitism, why it is wrong to sell t-shirts emblazoned with swastikas, and why it is unacceptable to coerce one’s girlfriend into standing naked on the red carpet at the Grammys.”
He continued, “On that matter, it seems, we can all find some common ground. I agree. However, I want to challenge the notion that we can separate art from the artist. I’ve written on this subject before (#149), but I thought it might be worth revisiting. From reading your recent letters, it appears that some of you assume I hold this belief. To be clear, I do not.”
“The idea of an artist being divorced from their art is absurd. An artist and their art are fundamentally intertwined because art is the essence of the artist made manifest. The artist’s work proclaims, ‘This is me. I am here. This is what I am.’ However, the great gift of art is the potential for the artist to excavate their interior chaos and transform it into something sublime,” the rocker explained.
Cave then added, “This is what Kanye does. This is what I strive to do, and this is the enterprise undertaken by all genuine artists. The remarkable utility of art lies in its audacity to transfigure our corrupted state and create something beautiful.”
“As odious and disappointing as many of Kanye’s views are, and as sickening as antisemitism is – in its sadly always-present, ever-morphing forms – I endeavour to seek beauty wherever it presents itself. In doing so, I am reluctant to invalidate the best of us in an attempt to punish the worst. I don’t think we can afford that luxury,” the musician concluded his message.
David Draiman blasted West for his recent controversial remarks. Draiman called out Kanye on Instagram, saying there’s no excuse for his hate and calling him a ‘deranged Jew-hating, misogynistic, pathetic waste of life.’
