Forget about Terrell Owens, Chad Ochocinco or those self-involved housewives down in Atlanta. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the latest installment of the ongoing saga that is Kanye West’s career. Clearly, this is the best unintentional reality programming available.
When we last left our protagonist, he was blowing a gasket on national television. As is his wont, he naturally placed the blame on his interviewer. Never one to shy away from controversy, he now looks to do the impossible by outdoing himself with blood-soaked erotica.
In today’s episode, our hero — who once proclaimed himself the heir to the late Michael Jackson — makes an attempt to pay homage to the fallen music icon with “Monster”, his own personal version of the classic video “Thriller.” This being the post-modern age of overkill, West’s latest product is replete with violent and gory images that appear to suggest necrophilia, cannibalism, and other psychoses.
Unlike “Thriller”, which was considered avant garde for its blend of special effects, scripted narrative and brilliant choreography, “Monster” is all shock value with little discernible purpose. If anyone is considering watching this number, it’s best to skip lunch: viewers are treated to mutilated bodies, severed heads and appendages, and hanging corpses. West does manage to notch a few points for aesthetics: the bodies are all eye-pleasing models. The video is rounded out by cameo appearances from Rick Ross, Jay-Z and the overexposed Nicki Minaj. The video has elements of Diana Ross’s 80s hit, “Eaten Alive”.
Though Kanye West can be accused of a number of offenses, predictability certainly isn’t one of them. Once watchers get beyond their initial revulsion, they might find that “Monster” reveals much about how West views himself. Admittedly, pop psychological analysis is the entertainment industry’s most overused trope, but bear with me momentarily. Alas, because little of how West behaves can be viewed as mere entertainment, psychology is one of the few remaining ways to explain his head-scratching behavior.
Context is everything, so the video is best understood listening to, or perhaps reading, the lyrics. West sings: “Gossip, gossip…everybody know I’m a f**kin’ monster…I’m a need to see your f**kin’ hands at the concert…” The self-description as a “monster” seems to be a nod to how the media and some music listeners tend to view the notoriously mercurial rapper, whose dramatic mood swings border on legend.
The macabre video does appear to match the darkness found in the lyrics of the song, which a better head-shrink than your writer would say demonstrates a fairly tortured soul. Even the prevalence of dead models in the video may suggest something about his romantic life: West had a high-profile relationship with model Amber Rose until they separated last year. Although tabloid reports described the split as largely amicable, the line between love and hate is awfully thin.
As anyone with a pulse is now aware, West is one of the most turbulent and temperamental artist the music world has seen in quite some time. While the untimely death of his mother has engendered sympathy in some quarters, the rapper always manages to undermine any good will with his vertiginous mood swings. One of the chief criticisms that can be successfully leveled at West is how easy he makes it for his critics.
The last line of “Monster” resounds for its chilling implications of impending judgment: “I crossed the line, and I’ll let God decide.” Prodigious musical talent tends to make most fans pretty tolerant of oddball behavior. That said, West may find that record buyers, exhausted by his interminable antics and unyielding need for attention, could decide far sooner than the man upstairs.
