At the pinnacle of his career, LeBron was every bit the humble antithesis of Kanye that he was during his rookie season.
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“Who the rookie of the year: me or LeBron James?” a young Kanye West rapped in 2004. The two men weren’t competitors, but their success stories were similar. LeBron was drafted out of high school to propel the Cleveland Cavaliers up from the worst record in the NBA, while Kanye promised to defend the artistic integrity and intellectual value of rap music at a time when most mainstream rap lyrics centered around gangbanging and selling drugs.
LeBron was the savior of Cleveland, and Kanye wanted to be the savior of hip-hop. The former got the glory; the latter did not. LeBron was awarded Rookie of the Year as predicted, but Kanye was snubbed at the Grammy Awards, losing Album of the Year to the late Ray Charles and Best New Artist to Maroon 5. It was the first of many awards shows where Kanye would make a scene over another person winning.
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Kanye quickly gained a reputation as a hothead and a sore loser. His outbursts became more famous than his actual music, and despite consistent commercial success, he became the celebrity everyone loved to hate.
What does that say about us as a culture, that we turn against good people when they don’t do everything we expect them to?
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Then the two men appeared together in a 2007 Saturday Night Live sketch. Kanye was playing a parody of himself, rushing the stage at awards shows he wasn’t even competing in, including the presentation of the Nobel Prize for Physics. The sketch ends with Kanye throwing a temper tantrum because he wasn’t asked to host Saturday Night Live, and then the camera turns to LeBron, the person who was asked to host. LeBron is seen as a humble and beloved underdog, while Kanye portrays himself as arrogant and entitled.
Three years later, LeBron left Cleveland, and his public image changed overnight. He remained soft-spoken and humble and continued to give millions to charity every year, but when he left Cleveland to play basketball elsewhere, he became the new Kanye: a celebrity everyone loved to hate. People cursed him for not winning in Cleveland, and then they cursed him for moving to a team he felt could win. What does that say about us as a culture, that we turn against good people when they don’t do everything we expect them to?
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LeBron lamented this reality in a 2010 Nike commercial, wherein he addresses the controversy of his leaving Cleveland. He asks his fans, “What should I do? Should I be who you want me to be?” The commercial was widely panned, and LeBron later apologized for his arrogance. He began winning instead of whining, gave Miami two championships, and then returned to Cleveland to (finally) win a championship there.
People wish death on a man because he interrupted a 19-year-old girl at an awards show seven years ago.
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It’s one thing to frustratedly ask, “What should I do?” It’s another thing to actually listen. LeBron asked if he should be what we wanted, and when the final buzzer rang last Sunday night, he was exactly that. He could have danced around the court arrogantly, but instead he fell to the ground, prayed and wept. At the pinnacle of his career, he was every bit the humble antithesis of Kanye that he was during his rookie season.
LeBron redeemed himself, and it made me wonder, can other once-hated celebrities redeem themselves in this way? Will Kanye (or any “cool to hate” celebrity, for that matter) ever enjoy what LeBron enjoyed last night? If not, why not? Why is our hatred of Kanye set in stone and irreversible?
When David Bowie and Prince passed away earlier this year, the Internet lamented ad nauseam, “Why couldn’t it have been Kanye?” People wish death on a man because he interrupted a 19-year-old girl at an awards show seven years ago. I assume that’s the reason, anyway, because most Kanye haters admit they’ve never actually heard his music, or that they like his music but just despise his personality.
Yes, personal taste in music is objective, but Kanye’s talent and cultural impact is just as significant as LeBron’s. Saying Kanye West is a “bad” musician is like saying LeBron James is a bad basketball player. You can make all the excuses you want, but in the end, all your attempts to undermine his success just make you look petty and ignorant. It doesn’t mean you have to like him, but if you dislike him, think about why.
To be the hero LeBron was, Kanye needs to stick up for one party without knocking another one down.
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Perhaps America sees LeBron as an advocate for Cleveland, while they only Kanye as an advocate for Kanye. Without Cleveland, LeBron is a villain; with Cleveland, he’s a hero. So for Kanye to achieve redemption, he needs a Cleveland of his own. He needs a deserving underdog he can lift to glory. (No, it can’t be Khloe Kardashian.)
Kanye has always wanted desperately to be liked, but he has also always embraced people’s hatred of him. He called the President of the United States a racist in a charity PSA, rushed the stage at several awards shows (although we only remember the one where he interrupted a white girl), and married the most hated reality TV star in the country. All of these things seem like self-destructive outbursts meant to provoke the masses, but at the time, he thought they were acts of heroics. When he called Bush a racist, he felt he was sticking up for the victims of Katrina, not attacking the President. When he interrupted Taylor Swift at the VMAs, he felt he was sticking up for Beyoncé, not attacking Swift. To be the hero LeBron was, Kanye needs to stick up for one party without knocking another one down.
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Finally, Kanye needs to accept that, even if he gives people less reason to hate him as a person, there will always be people who dislike his music. Not everyone likes hip-hop, and that shouldn’t faze him. Do you think LeBron is fazed by the millions of people who dislike basketball? Do you think he worries about their opinions and laments his career choice based on their tastes? No, he strives to be the best at what he does, and the millions of people who do like basketball know it. So if Kanye keeps making great music the way LeBron keeps playing great basketball, there’s a chance the public will come around and embrace him. It all starts when he asks himself, with no sense of irony or passive-aggressiveness, “What should I do?”
Also by Giorgio Selvaggio
Photo: Getty Images
I think it’s premature to deem any antipathy towards Kanye “irreversible”… he hasn’t actually ended any of the behaviors that generated such backlash, so there’s no reason for haters to revise their opinions. He might, as you said, win back a portion of the public if he keeps his head down and sticks to what he inarguably does best (music) but he doesn’t seem inclined to do that either. Another recent-ish piece on GMP reflected on the callousness often directed towards alcoholics or drug addicts. Kanye West may not be an addict (unless you argue that he’s hooked on attention… Read more »
Kanye needs to empower his artists like Lebron does to his teammates. After all, that is how Cleveland won the championship. Lebron understood that he could not win the championship by himself. Basketball is a team sport. Why is hip-hop different? A record label makes money by empowering his artists to make good music – hence the name of his record label, GOOD Music. Kanye is not doing a bad job with GOOD Music, but it does not equate to the caliber of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment is the best example of a championship caliber style team… Read more »