EXCLUSIVE: Warryn Campbell suggests Kanye West is playing us for publicity

Let's hope the "Graduation" producer is right about Yeezy.

May 30, 2018

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Warryn Campbell has collaborated with Kanye West several times, and the veteran music man who knows a thing or two about making hits recently revealed that he believes Yeezy’s recent antics have more to do with selling records than legitimate support for Trump or a trip off the deep end.

“I would say keep in mind that Kanye West is an artist; that’s one. Keep in mind that he has new music coming out; that’s two. Keep in mind that when you are an artist and you have new music coming out, you have to find a way to promote that music, that’s three. Put all that together and what you start to see is a different picture of a campaign more than a real stance,” Warryn Campbell told TheGrio in an exclusive interview.

“We all know Kanye has been very militant in his thinking. He said ‘George Bush doesn’t care about black people.’ All he has done, and I think it’s brilliant in many ways, is he has pissed a lot of people off. What he did was the exact same thing that Trump did to get in office. He just said anything he could think of to rattle people’s cages. You gotta watch that.”

Even though Campbell seems to be giving West the benefit of the doubt, he recalled an interaction with the rapper that left him surprised and uncertain of what’s coming next.

“I don’t take Kanye a hundred percent seriously. One time I saw him doing something and he said he was going to run for President in 2020. I was driving a couple days later in Downtown LA and I saw on a building ‘Kanye for president 2020’ so I thought it was funny and took a picture and sent it to him. I thought his response would be something like, ‘Oh, that’s funny.’ But his response was, ‘Yea, man. We gotta get ready.’ It made me think, maybe he really thinks he’s gonna run,” he said.

“I just don’t know what his end game is but I know at the end of the day he’s going to come down and come out and make a real statement at some point. He’s just taking us on a train ride and going about it in a way we’re not used to. I’m looking forward to whatever it is he’s trying to land and I hope he lands soon.”

Let’s hope that landing comes in the form of the seven songs Kanye West is set to release on Friday. Let’s all pray that Warryn Campbell is right and this descent into the sunken place was just the ultimate fake out before West redeems himself as the people’s champ who has secretly set his sights on taking down Trump.

Erica Campbell had a slightly different take on the situation and doesn’t think fans should be so obsessed with artist’s personal opinions.

“Our culture, we are consumed with consuming. Not only do we consume the music of an artist, we consume their ideas, the way the dress, they way they eat, the places we go to. We’re becoming clones as opposed to enjoying the music of a person and allowing them their American right to have their way of thinking without vilifying them. We all think differently. Sometimes we will agree and sometimes we will not but it does not mean the death of a person’s career because you and your friends don’t think the same way,” she said.

“We all think different things. This is not a world full of robots. We don’t all like the same person or vote for the same person or go to the same church. Even when you like someone don’t turn that person into your God. There’s a whole lot of worship going on with these artists. Tattoos of their faces on fans’ arms and crying. it’s kind of extreme and it makes me understand why people get so angry and enraged when someone says something they don’t agree with You have to allow people their opinions.”