Kanye West is trying out a new form of expression lately, sharing visual poems on his Instagram (after deleting all his other posts again) expressing his feelings on “DIVORCE” and on death with his latest, “DEAD.” Ye, who is legally separated from Kim Kardashian, reflected on the couple’s ongoing divorce with his last poem, which found him comparing the feeling to having “full-blown COVID” and rolling his ankle on the first play of the Super Bowl.
In his latest, he imagines being dead without knowing it — a la the ghosts from The Sixth Sense, I suppose — and the world going on without him, despite his best efforts to continue participating in life. He also spells “prayed” as “pread,” so it’s a pretty typical Kanye work in that sense (remember when he had us all going along with “apologin’?”). He also, apparently begrudgingly, offered the following by way of explanation of the poem/rap, lest it be taken out of context. Still, I don’t think any of us would complain if he took a break and reached out to a therapist. You can read the poem in full below.
“I feel already compromised that I have to justify my expression after over 20 years of art that I’ve contributed to the planet but I also see the need to make sure we as a species are allowed to still feel anything Men not allowed to cry celebrities not allowed to cry I will not explain this new piece for the explanation destroys the mystery and magic of true love and puts it in a box that can be counted Art is subjective Art only works when it is the artist absolute truth Someone’s truth can be another persons lie We don’t all have to feel the same because we are not the same With out further ado I present to you my latest creation it is called DEAD”
“No one wanted to tell me I was DEAD / And only people that would talk to me were in my head / No one wanted to tell me I was DEAD / Only people who loved me would visit in their dreams instead / They would come to my grave and sprinkle some bread / So on my tombstone the birds would be fed / I would give new requests but nothing was said / Cause no one wanted to tell me that I was DEAD / They ran through my account like the sign said free bread / But no one wanted to tell me I was DEAD / My kids would dance for me in a home I once led / But kids see ghosts and didn’t know I was DEAD / Every thing was wrong in the press that I read / Cause nobody would tell me that I was DEAD / I realized when people spoke to me was only when they pread / Cause nobody would just tell me / Bro you been DEAD / Won’t anyone listen to one word I said / Of course not sir / You know how long you been DEAD / Funny it’s been a long time since I bled / You think someone who prides being smart as me would have known that he’s DEAD / So now every idea only exists in my head / I guess that’s how people treat people who are DEAD / I found out one day at the newsstand in purgatory, there was a front page article of my murderers story / I was so surprised at what it said / This info is for the living/ And surprise … You’re DEAD.”