INFO 303 Literacy Blog 3

I’ve been a fan of hip-hop my entire life. I grew up listening to it and it continues to be my favorite genre of music. One of my favorite artists of all time is easily Kanye West. I remember his album Graduation being the very first CD I ever bought. That was way back in 2007, when I was still in elementary school, and when music videos used to show up on TV and not YouTube. I always looked up to Kanye; him and his work became a part of my social language. Even though I wasn’t from there, I felt pride knowing he represented Chicago and with it, Illinois itself. I never thought any of my other discourses would cause me to not like him as much. Even after his infamous “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” line during Hurricane Katrina, I still looked up to him. Even after his even more infamous interruption of Taylor Swift at the VMAs, I still liked him. It wasn’t until my own political discourse clashed with my fan discourse that I saw him in a different light. I was shocked that he liked and supported Donald Trump. (Looking back on it, they are pretty similar people.) I thought to myself, this isn’t the same Kanye I knew back in 2007. Indeed it wasn’t and even Kanye himself was aware of this on his 2016 album The Life of Pablo with a track titled I Miss the Old Kanye. I wouldn’t say I dislike him now, as I think disliking someone solely based upon political beliefs isn’t fair. But I do think of him differently now. He felt like he could’ve been my uncle, and now he’s more like a distant family friend. Although not as serious, this does relate to Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”. My fan discourse wanted to idolize him and put him on a pedestal. My own political discourse made it harder to agree with what he was doing outside of music, and also caused me to listen more closely to what he was saying with his music. Similar to Anzaldua’s Spanglish conflict, my own fan and political discourse continue to influence one another. This seems to be the case with many other Kanye fans that I personally know.