hollywood billionaire

Chapter 398 Reputation (Part )

Everything in the world is about sex - except sex.

Sex is about power.

Everything is about sex, except sex itself.

Sex is about power.

Oscar Wilde did not actually utter this famous quote. Wilde died on November 1900, 11, and the first recorded use of the word "sex" as a noun to refer to sexual intercourse was coined by British writer David Herbert Lawrence in 30.

In other words, it would have been impossible for the handsome, melancholy Dublin poet in exile in Paris to form a sentence using a word that had not yet been invented during his lifetime.

In fact, this famous quote was first written down on paper exactly eighty-one years after Wilde left the real world in an Alsace hotel.

Sarah Le Fanu and Hannah Cantor, two little-known sociologists who didn't even leave behind a photograph, boldly expressed the view that sex is a major means of demonstrating power in their only publication, "Sexual Statements: A Book on the Women's Liberation Movement." Over the next thirty years, this view became the consensus of human society on gender relations.

This theory is so insightful and popular that Frank Underwood, perhaps the most profound and powerful male protagonist in the history of the American television industry, also has to use this sentence to show the audience his way of being an official and his art of being thick-skinned.

Today, this sentence condenses a philosophy that all cynics, egalitarians, social Darwinists and even idealists can resonate with, and plays different roles among different groups. In sharp contrast to its popularity is the obscurity of its original author.

Few people know that Sarah Le Fanu and Hannah Cantor exist, and more importantly, even if they know the truth, the next time people quote this famous quote, they will habitually start it with "Oscar Wilde once said."

why?
Because, the phrase “sex is about power” is also about power.

Only theories heard from Oscar Wilde or other thinkers of equal reputation are valuable and worth remembering.

This is the energy of power.

Kanye West knows this energy all too well.

It is precisely because of his profound and clear understanding of these mass communication phenomena that he wrote "Famous" and these lyrics that sound vulgar.

“I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex.

Why? I made that bitch famous.

God damn,

I made that bitch famous. ”

Can these four lines of text be understood and analyzed directly based on their literal meaning?

Of course not.

First, there is the simple, indisputable fact that Kanye West is an artist with a strong, personal aesthetic who has stuck to his standards for decades, whether in music production, fashion design or partner choice.

Taylor Swift, on the other hand, is not part of the aesthetic system he has carefully constructed and fanatically defended.

Just look at the people Kanye West has publicly dated since the start of his career.

Putting aside high school sweetheart Shoemaker Rainey, about whom there is a lack of image material, starting with his second girlfriend and first fiancée Alexis Pfeiffer, there are Brooke Crittenden, Amber Ross, Kim Kardashian, and even Irina Shayk, Chaney Jones, and Bianca Sensori, who have not yet had any emotional interactions with Kanye in this time and space... Putting their photos together, you can immediately tell some very similar traits.

They all had shiny brown hair, a plump body, and no matter what their origins, black or white, they all blended themselves into a racially ambiguous bronze color.

Racial ambiguity is the latest aesthetic trend in Hollywood in the 21st century. It is the standard for choosing a partner that Kanye West highly advocates, and it is also the complete antonym of Taylor Swift.

Blonde hair and blue eyes, standard Caucasian appearance. His maternal ancestry is Scottish mixed with German, his paternal ancestry is Scottish and Italian, and before the 17th century, he also had a little bit of English heritage. Even in New England, he is considered a pure Caucasian.

Moreover, in 2016, Taylor was in hot pursuit of a supermodel in the fashion world, with aesthetic standards infinitely close to the requirements of Paris Fashion Week. With a height of feet inches and a figure personally adjusted by Karlie Kloss, it is not without reason that a group of Reddit users called her a matchbox.

In other words, a girl like Taylor Swift would never appear in Kanye West's mate selection radar, and it would be extremely difficult for her to arouse the latter's primitive desires.

So why did he declare on “Famous,” “I think Taylor and I might still have sex”?

It's because "I made this bitch famous."

This line of lyrics fully reflects Kanye West's sense of superiority and superiority over Taylor Swift, but it is by no means limited to this.

On the premise that the relationship between the two sides has eased, Kanye launched a surprise attack on Taylor again. In fact, it was not directed at Taylor himself, or only a small part of the resentment was focused on Taylor. After all, no matter what, Taylor was the one who sang "Innocent" on the stage and kept making jokes about it on various occasions, making him lose face but had to force a smile and pretend to be open-minded. But if the grudge ended here, then Kanye would not have needed to make such a big fuss. He took over the Vanguard Award from the other party one year, and turned against him the next year, launching fierce personal attacks with words.

Ultimately, Kanye West's real target is Universal Music, which stands behind Taylor Swift, and the entire music industry represented by this group.

I made this bitch famous.

All of your attempts at publicity are not as good as my thirty seconds of speaking out at the VMAs.

I am a genius that you cannot control. The anger I vent at will can help you unexpectedly create a star.

You, the rentier, corrupt, incompetent so-called behind-the-scenes promoters who feed on artists by sucking their blood, why do you think you can own my copyright, control my career, and destroy my freedom?
This is not groundless speculation, but the melody of resistance that Kanye West has been carrying throughout his career. In 2004, he established his own artist management company and independent music label GOOD Music. In 2007, he launched the College Dropout joint shoe with Bape. In the next few years, he frequently cooperated with Louis Vuitton, Giuseppe Zanotti and Nike, and finally chose Adidas to create Adidas Yeezy, using this method to increase his income outside of his main business and gain more voice and autonomy.

As his wings gradually grew stronger, in 2020, Kanye set off an anti-establishment storm, and sued the record company and master copyright owner Roc-A-Fella, the holding group behind Roc-A-Fella, and the music copyright distributor EMI in court, trying to take back all his artistic creations and intellectual property rights. After the action was frustrated, Kanye fired a series of shots on Twitter, and his words became more and more radical. Finally, at the end of 2022, he turned his spearhead on his biggest enemy in his mind - the Jews who firmly controlled the board seats of the music group and fashion group.

You can say he is narcissistic, paranoid, arrogant, and his mind is full of unrealistic fantasies, but you cannot deny this man's persistence in the correct ideas in his self-cognition and the efforts he has made for them. Kanye West, in a sense, is a Promethean tragic hero in Aeschylus's works. As an African American, he is free from the racial identity of black and white. He is endowed with amazing musical creation talent, but he cannot escape the fate of being controlled by capital. He has the courage to break through barriers, but he has failed miserably after repeated attempts. GOOD Music signed an exclusive long-term global distribution contract with Island Def Jam under Universal Music in 2011. Adidas Yeezy, in 2022, due to Kanye's controversial remarks, Adidas terminated the cooperation agreement ahead of schedule, and the entire brand quickly became yesterday's news. Music copyright was still firmly controlled by Universal and EMI until Han Yi was reborn. The desperate charge against Jewish forces became an irreversible turning point in his career.

Before being strangled by the liberal media controlled by Jewish capital, Kanye could get $850 million for his performance at Coachella. But after the resource channel was completely cut off, even if Kanye lowered his performance offer to $250 million or even $200 million, few organizers were willing to accept it.

Kanye West may be the one who has broken with Jewish forces most thoroughly and fought the most fiercely in the past two decades. In 2016, he has not been completely defeated. On the contrary, his career empire has just reached its peak. In music, his first six albums all entered the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums List, six seats for one person, which is enough to consolidate his historical position in the hip-hop music world. In terms of fashion, Adidas Yeezy has released three new seasons and 40000 pairs of new shoes. Without any publicity, they were all sold out within a few minutes of the cold start. The turnover of the entire brand has rapidly increased from 1500 million US dollars to 12 billion... Kanye West, who has already stepped half a foot into the capital circle and will soon wear the crown of black capitalists like Dr. Dre, is more powerful than ever.

At this point in time, the complacent Kanye West decided to follow his heart and make a confessional album full of political and declaration implications, and that is "The Life of Pablo", which means "The Life of Pablo" in Chinese.

The new album is named this way because Kanye West sees himself as the trinity of the following three people: Pablo Picasso, Pablo Escobar, and Saint Paul, known as "Pablo" in Spanish. In "I Love Kanye", Kanye sees himself as a great artist like Pablo Picasso, whose life is full of controversy but always shining. In the two songs titled "Father Stretch My Hands", Kanye embraces his religious beliefs as devoutly as Saint Paul, and even reinterprets them into gospel style with a church choir.

These are the shining points in Kanye West's character, his lovable side. And the ruthlessness and cruelty of crushing all opponents, like Pablo Escobar, is concentrated in the song "Famous".

He wants to have sex with Taylor Swift not because he is attracted to her, but because, in Kanye's eyes, he created the jewel in the crown of the music industry, and therefore he, not Universal Music Group, should have the power and control over Taylor Swift.

And what could better demonstrate his unshakable power than to pin down the princess of pop music and the eldest daughter of Universal Music and ravage her at will?

This is the true meaning of these four offensive lyrics.

What they want to offend is not Taylor Swift herself, but the mountain that Kanye can't wait to overthrow.

Therefore, when Kanye West called Taylor Swift and played the lyrics about her and asked for her permission, he was not provoking her in person. Instead, he really wanted to clear up the misunderstanding before the single was released. He hoped that Taylor Swift, who is also a music creator, could understand the metaphor in his lyrics and support him to speak for artists like Taylor who could not speak.

It may sound a bit ridiculous, but this is the most reasonable explanation for Kanye's behavior. After all, if he simply wanted to irritate Taylor, the best way to do it would be to release this single suddenly without informing her at all.

During the call, Kanye and Taylor carefully discussed the phrase "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex". According to Kanye, Kim Kardashian prefers "owe me sex", which means she owes me sex, but Taylor obviously resisted it, as she felt that this phrase put her in a weak position. "Maybe we'll have sex" is more euphemistic and gentle, and in Taylor's view, it's more like a joke between friends, rather than an overbearing insult.

During the call, Taylor tried her best to be understanding and supportive. She knew that a large part of hip-hop music was based on showing off power and sex, and that rappers sometimes sang lyrics just to maintain their personas, rather than actually doing it. Therefore, Taylor was willing to step back and give Kanye some creative tolerance, after all, the latter took the initiative to call her and ask for permission.

Of course, that doesn't mean Taylor doesn't mind the line at all. "You have to do everything you can to protect your current relationship. You just had a baby and you're in the best phase of your life, and I'm not suggesting you ruin it," is her veiled way of expressing her disagreement. Why would you write a song about having sex with a woman when you've already built a happy family with another woman?
It is not difficult to see from this passage that Taylor does not want Kanye to mention her name in the single in this way. But if the extent is limited to this, she will only express her opposition verbally, and will not stop it violently-after all, if you yourself do not care about the harmony and integrity of your family, why should I help you maintain it?
If "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex" is just a reflection of the characteristics of hip-hop music, then "I made that bitch famous" is different. Even Kanye West knows that this line completely denies Taylor Swift's independent personality and self-effort, and completely objectifies her into a vase. No matter if the owner of this vase is Kanye West or Universal Music Group, she is ultimately an object to be manipulated by others. For a musician of Taylor Swift's level, this kind of denial can make her more unhappy and angry than "who wants to sleep with her".

Therefore, on the phone, Kanye West did not tell the truth. He only carefully revealed that he wanted to write a sentence "I made her famous" without mentioning that he would use the word "bitch". However, even though the offensiveness of the lyrics had been reduced by several levels, Taylor's tone suddenly became tough, clearly opposing the emergence of such information.

She reminded him that she had two multimillion-selling albums before the 2009 VMAs: "Now, it doesn't really matter. But I mean, you have to tell this story from your perspective and from your own experience. Like, you didn't really know who I was before this happened. Like... I sold seven million copies of that album before you did that, and that's what happened. You didn't know me before that. That's the way it is."

While keeping the conversation friendly, Taylor Swift dismissed the line in the most direct and frank way possible, without leaving any ambiguous signals, but Kanye West still chose to include it in the final product and went a step further by using the word "bitch."

Taylor Swift's anger can be imagined. The two lines of lyrics together lightly denied her more than ten years of hard work day and night, as well as the career she had worked hard to build up through albums and singles.

Don't underestimate the power of history books. People always like to use iconic slogans with strong memorable points to label someone or something. If the song "Famous" is allowed to continue to ferment, in another 20 years, Taylor Swift will completely become the puppet of Universal Music that Kanye West made famous, no matter what the truth is.

Taylor's counterattack came quickly and fiercely. On February 2016, 2, just one day before the album preview of "The Life of Pablo", Taylor made a counterattack without naming anyone when she accepted the Album of the Year Award for "15" at the Grammy Awards.

"As the first woman to win two Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, I want to say to all young women out there - there will always be people trying to undermine your success or take credit for your achievements and fame."

"But if you just focus on the work and don't let those people distract you, one day when you get to your destination, you'll look around and know that it was you and the people who love you that got you here. That will be the best feeling in the world."

Just looking at the text, it is still the most classic, Taylor Swift-style, positive energy speech. But at that time, the content of the song "Famous" had already topped the Twitter hot trend list. The audience at the Staples Center and in front of the TV knew that Taylor Swift's words were a strong response to Kanye West.

You wanna take credit for my success? You got two Album of the Year awards?

If I remember correctly, there doesn't seem to be any?
In the following four months, Kanye West remained unusually silent and did not respond to Taylor Swift's remarks. Many people thought that this was another tug-of-war in the long history of Kanye and Taylor's feud, and another neurotic and outrageous move by Kanye. After all, when the relationship between the two sides had been greatly eased, the war was reignited and suddenly slapped someone in the face. Anyone would think it was Kanye's problem.

As a result, the comment section of Kanye West's social media account was instantly flooded by Taylor's fans and "righteous" passers-by. Everything seemed to be a replica of the 2009 VMA incident, except that the heat was not as high as the first time.

Kanye went crazy, Kanye was cured, it was a natural development.

But as Chrissy Teigen said on the Andy Cohen Show in March: "I'm telling you, it's not over. It's still going on. The war is still going on." Neither Taylor nor Kanye has raised the white flag. Taylor Swift's public relations director Terri Payne has thrown most of the propaganda weapons she can find at hand at Kanye, and has kept a few trump cards in her hand, ready to respond effectively according to the opponent's actions.

On June 2016, 6, just as the momentum of the new round of #KenTay dispute had subsided to a certain extent and Taylor's public relations team gradually relaxed their vigilance, Kanye's wife, Kim Kardashian, finally took further action.

"She was totally on board with that verse," West's then-wife Kardashian told GQ magazine in July of that year, noting that Swift knew the lyrics to "Famous" before it was released.

Kardashian then added: "She totally knew it was going to go public. She just wanted to pretend she didn't know. I swear, my husband gets so much flack for things, but he actually did follow the rules and even called to get approval."

After the interview was released, as usual, Terri Payne instructed her public relations staff to respond quickly.

"Taylor is not against Kim Kardashian because she knows the pressure Kim must be under, she is just repeating what Kanye West told her,"

the statement about West and his wife begins.

"However, this does not change the fact that a lot of what Kim said was not true. Kanye West and Taylor only spoke on the phone once in January 2016 when she was on vacation with her family, and they have not spoken since."

"Taylor has never denied that conversation. It was during that call that Kanye West also asked her to release the song on her Twitter account, which she refused."

Taylor's team's total denial played into Kim Kardashian's hands. As an experienced person, she did not release the evidence directly, but let the incident continue to ferment to gain the most attention. After her comment area was flooded with vicious insults for a whole month, she leisurely released the call record between Kanye and Taylor on Snapchat.

Carefully edited transcript of the call.

And this became the last straw that broke the camel's back for Taylor Swift's perfect golden signboard.

(End of this chapter)