Nick Cave is still listening to Kanye West’s music, no matter how controversial the rapper has become.
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In a 2020 letter to a fan, Cave called West “our greatest artist.” Then, in January, the Australian singer revealed that he wants West’s “I Am God” played at his funeral. Since then, West has doubled down on his antisemitic and misogynistic comments and described himself as a Nazi.
West’s comments left one of Cave’s fans wondering: “How the hell can you listen to the song without seeing the scum of a human being that Kanye has become?”
Cave responded to the question, first by saying he does not agree with West’s views.
“Numerous letters have come in expressing, in no uncertain terms, disapproval of my fondness for Kanye West’s music,” Cave wrote. “A lot of time and energy has been spent explaining the evil of Nazism, the harm of antisemitism, why it is wrong to sell t-shirts emblazoned with swastikas and why it is unacceptable to coerce one’s girlfriend into standing naked on the red carpet at the GRAMMYs. On that matter, it seems, we can all find some common ground. I agree.”
Why Nick Cave Still Supports Kanye West as an Artist
However, Cave doesn’t plan to stop listening to West or praising him as an artist.
“The idea of an artist being divorced from their art is absurd. An artist and their art are fundamentally intertwined because art is the essence of the artist made manifest,” he wrote. “… However, the great gift of art is the potential for the artist to excavate their interior chaos and transform it into something sublime. This is what Kanye does.”
“We are not prisoners of our flawed nature but can transcend it. We look to artists and their art to convey this exact thing,” he added. “In his brokenness, Kanye is an exemplar par excellence of this notion, the braided dance between sin, transcendence and genius.”
Cave noted that he believes it’s “deluded” that anyone thinks they are “somehow exclusively and morally superior to everyone else.”
“Many of you might be thinking, ‘Well, speak for yourself! I’m not like Kanye! I could never behave like that!’ Yet, given the circumstances, we humans are capable of anything,” he wrote. “To be human is to be flawed, yet it is also to possess the potential to achieve staggering things – beautiful, brilliant, inspiring, wild and audacious things; things to be cherished, despite our complex and compromised natures.”
Cave concluded by calling West’s views “odious and disappointing,” but wrote that he’ll continue to listen to the rapper’s music.
“I endeavor to seek beauty wherever it presents itself,” he wrote. “In doing so, I am reluctant to invalidate the best of us in an attempt to punish the worst. I don’t think we can afford that luxury.”
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