Kanye West Thinks People Can Still Appreciate Michael Jackson’s Music Despite Controversy
Kanye West supports Michael Jackson despite the late singer's controversial past. In the second session of his Sunday Service series yesterday (Jan. 13), the rapper briefly addressed the idea of people focusing on the negative aspects of an artist's. During this bit, he appears to reference Leaving Neverland, documentary focusing on child sexual abuse allegations against Michael Jackson.
"They're just going to pull up full documentaries on 'em, and then they're going to come with the Michael documentary," Kanye said in the video, which finds him delivering performances of his Kid Cudi collab "Reborn" and more. "But we can enjoy their music all we want... I thought I wasn't going to go there today. If we're gonna tear down artists, let's go ahead and take [Leonardo] da Vinci out the Lourve. Let's take down all the art."
As we mentioned up top, Kanye appears referencing Leaving Neverland, which is all set to debut at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Leaving Neverland will tell the stories of two boys who were ages 7 and 10 when they allegedly began long-running relationships with Jackson in the 1990s, and how they came to terms with it all as middle-aged men.
Although the exact context of Kanye’s interaction with the crowd isn't too clear, Yeezy could've also been alluding to the explosive Lifetime series Surviving R. Kelly that has reportedly ignited a new criminal investigation into the veteran R&B singer. Either way, Kanye seems to believe that we can still appreciate the music from the artist no matter what crimes they were previously accused of.
Predictably, Kanye faced some backlash for his comments. His wife Kim Kardashian-West came to his defense, though, claiming that his comments were taken out of context.
“I’m going to nip this in the bud right now. Kanye was speaking about his own experience of everyone quick to say they are cancelling him because of differences in opinion & not being perfect,” Kim wrote in one tweet. “The analogies were in context to his own experiences, not defending anyone else.
She continued, "I want to make it very clear, he is not condoning anyone’s actions or unacceptable disgusting behavior. My husband’s words are being taken out of context due to timing."
Watch parts of Kanye’s rap-gospel performance for yourself below. See Kim K’s clarification tweet beneath that.
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