Kanye West has provided yet more evidence of how far he needs to travel to get to the real world. Over the weekend, the self-proclaimed ‘genius’ and ‘best rapper in the business’ debuted 20 brand new but eminently forgettable songs during a concert in London. But it was a comment he made between songs that got the attention.
Though no video cameras were allowed inside, those in attendance reported that at one point the rapper compared facing the paparazzi to be being raped.
Amid boos from fans who presumably came to hear his music, West ranted: “Everybody needs a day off, everybody needs the right to say ‘hey, you know what I need a minute to breathe.
“I want to bring my family to the movies without 30 motherf*****s following me. Everybody here, they like sex right? Sex is great when you and your partner be like ‘hey, this is what we both want to do.’ But if one of those people don’t want to do that, what does that constitute, that’s called rape. That is called violation.”
Mercy singer Kanye managed to offend almost all of the audience over his two London concerts. His rape clanger came just after a 15 minute rant about the perils of fame, including: “The only reason I’m on this stage right now is because y’all my clique,” he said after stopping the music, adding: “You know I go to the studio till 3am so you can listen to the music in your car.”
On Tuesday, Fox News’ Outnumbered took on West’s comments, placing them in the larger context of Hollywood actors like Charlize Theron and Gwyneth Paltrow, who have made similarly insensitive comments about the perils of fame. “What is wrong with these people?” co-host Sandra Smith asked.
As the show’s resident Hollywood representative, Stacey Dash reacted a bit more strongly than the rest of the panel. “For Kanye to say ‘rape,’ maybe he needs to spend some time on (notorious New York jail complex) Rikers Island, go to Rikers for a while, and then he’ll know what rape is.” She then defended the paparazzi as “just doing their job.”
Later in the discussion, actress Dash, who appeared in Kanye’s video for his hit “All Falls Down”, had some advice for West. “If you’re nice, if you’re polite to them, they leave you alone,” she said. “It’s when you start to call them names and act crazy and put your hands up and do all this drama that they make it a big deal.”
West was already a prime target for paparazzi before he married Kim Kardashian, but now it has inevitably reached a whole new level. But as Dash points out, that doesn’t mean he knows what it feels like to be raped.
Stacey Dash, who has been working on Fox News as a contributor for “cultural analysis and commentary”, is a cousin of Damon Dash, founder of Roc-A-Fella records and Roc-A-Wear apparel.
