By Daniel Salvio

Kanye West: he is a music icon, and a clothing mogul, but clearly no politician. From his first incident with his comments regarding George Bush during the Hurricane Katrina relief effort in 2006 to interrupting Taylor Swift at the 2009 Video Music Awards, it seems as though he puts himself in the center of a media frenzy every couple of years. This coverage can be in good fun or extremely controversial; his favoritism for Trump has proven to be the latter.

The most recent occurrence began with the publication of a photo of Kanye wearing a “Make America Great Again” signed red hat in support for our current president. Public outrage escalated when, on April 21, Kanye tweeted his support for Candace Owens and her way of thinking and has since been spotted meeting with her in Los Angeles.

Now, why is this support potentially controversial? Candace Owens is a 28-year-old URI graduate who is well known for her right-wing opinions and tweets regarding a number of ongoing political topics of discussion including the Black Lives Matter Movement and gender dysphoria.

She calls herself a reformed democrat who woke up one day and realized that conservatism is the only way to save black America. While this opinion is not that extreme, the way she goes about “educating” others is.

She further states that she is not a ‘stereotypical black girl’: “I don’t have a name that is hard to pronounce and I don’t speak in colloquialisms.” It is because of these controversial statements and beliefs that lead me to believe her newfound association with Kanye West will be detrimental to his music career, at least for the time being.

Kanye announced that he will be releasing two brand new albums in the next month. The first is a solo album that will contain seven songs and is scheduled to be released on June 1. The second is a collaboration album with Kid Cudi, scheduled for release a week later on June 8.

Many, including myself, are speculating that Kanye’s recent tweets regarding Ms. Owens will have a negative impact on the sales of these upcoming albums. If we look at Kanye’s main fan base demographic, over 70 percent of his fans are between the ages of 17 and 32. Politically speaking, this age group typically leans left.

After Kanye’s tweet, countless former allies and fellow entertainers have cut ties with the rap superstar and unfollowed him on Twitter, not to mention the large mass exodus of ordinary people. Stars such as Drake, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj are now distancing themselves from Kanye.

This distancing will cause a ripple effect, and fans of these stars may turn on Kanye as well. Most of his fans are young people of color, who will undoubtedly be turned off by his association and support of people like Candace Owens or Donald Trump.

Interestingly, many of his fans took to Twitter to call out to be rap star on what they believe is a publicity stunt. They reference the timing of most of Kanye’s less than stellar moments over the past few years, which all seem to coincide with the release of an album, clothing line or other project. His latest actions are a stunt, he is taking a pretty big risk with his fan base.

He seems to be taking a cue from the president himself with regard to inciting an uproar on Twitter.

If his loss of over a million Twitter followers is any indication, these two new albums will not live up to the expectation and precedent set by former albums such as Life of Pablo and Yeezus. I, as a music aficionado, will be listening to his upcoming music. However, there are many in this country whose political views will “trump” their prior appreciation of Kanye’s music.

Daniel Salvio, FCRH ’19, is an economics major from Shelton, Connecticut.