In true Kanye West fashion, the rapper set off a firestorm this week in a live stream with the producer Digital Nas, directing his lens and rage at fellow artist Frank Ocean. The reason? One giant and very Kanye show of force stemming from a highly contentious political dispute.
"Frank Ocean p#### ass come over to my house, talking about Trump all day and how I shouldn't support Trump," Kanye said in one of the few examples of him taking any of the criticism that he faced during that swap so personally that it still stuck with him. Segregation, old school," he said, adding, "F### what you know about politics and n####; I'm your m############ senior, your OG. Y'all used to tour with me, n####.'
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Kanye-sized response to Frank Ocean's apparent swipe at his well-chronicled support for Donald Trump. But the rant did not just reach into politics. As is frequently the case with Ye, that moment quickly transformed from a personal spat to an unmistakably expansive statement of creative supremacy.
"None of you n##### can tell me about politics n####," he said, adding with characteristic fire. "F### you think? You picked up a book, and suddenly you can tell me some s###? All of these n##### s is not skilled. I’m the best m############ artist that ever lived. "They can just be marginally better at one thing since that's all they do."
As if that wasn't enough, Kanye sniped again, this time at Frank's musical legacy. He noted his 2021 track Moon, with Don Toliver and Kid Cudi, saying it hit the brakes on Ocean's career right there.
"When I did 'Moon' it like killed Frank Ocean's career," Ye claimed. "His ain't had a song since then! I heard it, I was like, 'Oh, this n#### ain't never gon' be able to make another album again. If someone has a genre of music, I make a better version of that."
While the world has grown familiar with Ye's unrepentant swagger, this feud has a particularly personal tenor, with politics, pride, and past collaborations fusing into one explosive moment. Kanye and Frank have a long, at times contentious history. Ocean has previously toured with West and worked with him during the Life of Pablo era. Yet that connection now feels charred to ash.
The livestream polarized fans, with some viewing West's rant as another long-awaited chapter in his ongoing series of bizarre tirades. Others took to social media to dissect deeper fissures between art and politics, ego and influence, and, perhaps most interestingly, who among music's tight creative elite rightly deserves to wear the crown.
Kanye is in full-blown scorched-earth mode. Whether Frank Ocean will respond or ride it out remains to be seen. But with Ye, the storm never merely passeth. It's always just beginning.
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