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Yesterday I watched Kanye West‘s “Yeezy Season 3” event with a grain of salt. Today I watched it again and decided to give all my attention to him.

I watched him walk into the home of the New York Knicks with Lamar Odom, as thousands of people screamed at the sight of him. It reminded me of when Nas and DMX strolled into a neon black-lit strip club in the beginning of Belly and you knew you were witnessing something great for the culture.

Travi$ Scott and Pusha T stood by Yeezy’s side and accessories or “friends” (depending on how you view it) were all strategically placed as ‘Ye connected his magical laptop to the sound system at the place where John Starks dunked on Michael Jordan. This was Kanye’s MSG moment, and one of the most visually pleasing things I’ve seen in a while.

I sensed the excitement in his eyes, and the pride in his every movement that he was about to reveal his other babies, the collection of his hard work. With a simple, “Yo!” he began to put his art, passion, and love in our hands.

Over each track, you could physically see the love Kanye had for his work. One could only hope to feel the amount of happiness that Kanye felt while playing his album for all of us. Then when it was over, he addressed the crowd.

This is something that could not have happened without God holding me down through the… It’s been a hard struggle. I feel so happy, I feel so much joy. To be able to actually follow my dreams and without people shitting on me, without being given an opportunity to create as an artist.”

After getting criticized for calling out Taylor Swift on the album, Yeezy went on another rant that I glanced over because I’m a little sick of them, but I realized Kanye’s truth. I know it because it’s also mine, and it very well may be his default character flaw to most people reading this article.

David Foster Wallace said during his 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address something that sums up Yeezy in a nutshell:

We rarely think about this sort of natural, basic self-centeredness because it’s so socially repulsive. But it’s pretty much the same for all of us. It is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth. Think about it: there is no experience you have had that you are not the absolute center of. The world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to the left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor. And so on. Other people’s thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real.

That’s Kanye’s default and people hate him for it. His default is so strong that he makes everyone else’s self centeredness feel inadequate. He’s not “well-adjusted” in a way where he can switch his natural default off, and he cares so much about what people think of him that he tells you he doesn’t care. But he’s never going to stop telling the world exactly how he feels. He’s flawed, scared, and confident as fuck.

The Life Of Kanye would be a lot more interesting than Pablo’s. I just wish Wallace had a chance to analyze Kanye West. That would be such an interesting read.

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty

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