KANYE: LOST
IN SPACE?

The people have responded: There is a languishing at hand. Or, putting it more bluntly: Kanye, talk to the hand.

If we read the tea leaves on both the reaction to and consumption of West’s new releases since his utterly confusing, even heartbreaking return to the spotlight in recent days, the word that comes to mind is mediocre, a grade rarely given to an artist of this stature.

And just as T.I. expressed on our behalf in the hastily recorded and released “Ye Vs. The People,” folks are simply NOT DOWN with the program. As peers like Drake and J. Cole were breaking streaming records in a matter of hours, Kanye stumbled out the box, while trolling halfheartedly, with songs that now sit at #68 (the poopy-di-scoop “Lift Yourself”) and #142 (“Ye Vs. The People”) on the Top 200 that actually matters more—Spotify’s global ranking (they're currently #43 and #73, respectively, on the U.S. chart).

In Charlamagne’s tender-footed, warm-embrace interview with Ye, behind the walls of his private-estate safe house in Calabasas, we learned a few key things. Namely, the audience not embracing his Life of Pablo music to the level of his own expectations—a competitive tic he internalized to the point of breakdown (or “breakthrough,” as he likes to reassign it)—remains a trigger point. What is also clear is an apparent fragility in his own psyche, which is present in both the emotional-pinball approach to self-examination and therapy via whoever is randomly in his presence (no doubt 90% enablers on payroll), and the repeated use of “HSP,” or “highly sensitive person”—a term associated with a bipolar diagnosis.

Which begs the question—who TF around Kanye is pinballing him through these multiple firestorms? Or worse, leaving him to his own devices by enabling the powder-keg scenario of the TMZ newsroom? Or is this the implosion of the self-managed, since that interaction resulted in the now-iconic “Kanye Being Schooled” pic that negatively ricocheted across the Web, this son of a former college professor now being mocked as the standard-bearer of ignorance about the history of slavery? Donda would be mortified. It’s an "L" of inexcusable negligence on the part of everyone around Kanye West.

One of Ye’s many current earth angels, T.I., appeared on The Breakfast Club with DJ Envy, Angela Yee and CthaGod this morning (5/2) and discussed dealing with the mindset of 2018 Kanye. “He doesn’t seem like, malicious—it seems extremely sincere and passionate, like he just woke up on some shit one day,” T.I. explained, “I didn’t get no signs of an inebriated state of mind.”

The artist’s dangerous lack of awareness and severed connection to the roots of his own fan base’s world has and potentially will continue to cost him. Drake, by comparison, keenly understands the undercurrent of vulnerability present in our society right now—and responded brilliantly with “God’s Plan,” followed by the female-empowered “Nice for What.” Now that’s demonstrating the energy of real love. An artist brings joy to the people, Yeezy, they don’t just toy with the people.

Kanye’s affliction with reality and his place in it has already resulted in a catastrophic backfire. As New York Times critic Jon Caramanica has insightfully pointed out, “a collective global rescue effort for his mind and soul (and, in truth, his legacy) is playing out in real time.”

“We as the black delegation cannot afford to lose Kanye West," T.I. emphatically stated on The Breakfast Club. “If anybody needs my help and they are worth helping and they have shown that they are willing to put in the work to help themselves, I can’t turn my back on that.”

A new seven-track project from Kanye West is due out 6/1.