Kanye West‘s latest creative genius is affecting a lot of people. At his Melrose Ave. ‘Yeezus’ pop-up store, the rapper is displaying and selling merchandise emblazoned with the Confederate flag.There are tote bags, t-shirts, and all manner of fare bearing the ‘ol Stars and Bars, a symbol representing the murder, rape, persecution, and exploitation of West’s ancestors and many others. The merch comes with slogans like “Yeezus wants you,” “The Winning Team” and “I Ain’t Coming Down“–the latter a response, no doubt, to the popular Confederate phrase, “The South Will Rise Again.”
Kanye’s goes to the extreme in music, art, and fashion, but this particular pill seems a little difficult to swallow.Kanye already commented on his co-opting of the flag: “React how you want. Any energy you got is good energy,” he said in an interview with Los Angeles’s 97.1 AMP radio station. “I represented slavery, my abstract take on what I know about it, I wrote New Slaves. So I took the Confederate flag and made it my flag. What are you going to do?” He continued, “I just think people look cool in it. They look nice. And it’s colorless also,” Kanye continued. “It’s super hood and super white boy approved at the same time. That’s really what my style has always been.
What do you think? Is Kanye turning the Confederate Flag on its head? Or its just a stunt to garner more attention for his ‘Yeezus’ tour?
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