Is Kanye West Finally Growing Up Or What?

By Zach Dionne Posted Mar 14th 2011 08:45PM

When Kanye West got turned away from Paris fashion shows last week, we waited for the inevitable explosion, for Yeezy's newest dozen-tweet rant.

It never came. Our curiosity climbed. Then Kanye tweeted about Paris Fashion Week, and it was no kind of tirade; it was a happy photo of himself and a bevy of fans [above], simply tagged "photo from paris last week." What's going on here? Is Kanye West actually, seriously, finally growing up?

The fact that Kanye West is an artist of great merit is indisputable (sorry, haters -- just own it). Another truth -- evidenced by 'Ye's line "my life is like a child's illusions become reality" on a B-side to 2010's ubiquitously praised 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' -- is that Kanye isn't the most mature guy out there.

Anyone compiling a roundup of Kanye's childish behavior has plenty of fodder: In the last few months alone, West ticked off Lily Allen with a tweet about abortion, possibly ripped off the video concept for 'All of the Lights,' bravely held back a full-on tantrum on the 'Today' show and apparently staged his whole "they banned my album cover, WTF!" controversy. And, of course, Taylorgate. Never forget.

This time, Kanye, the self-proclaimed Louis Vuitton Don, impressively stayed tight-lipped about the Paris Fashion Week snub. Alone, that feat may not have been so commendable. But take February into consideration, when Justin Bieber lost the Best New Artist Grammy to relatively unknown jazz bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding. Kanye seemed on the cusp of another rant, tweeting:

And that was all. Not only did Kanye not say the wrong thing -- he didn't say anything. Whether Kanye would have defended Bieber -- who he had a brief Twitter bromance with, resulting in a remix of 'Runaway Love' -- or continued his long spree of speaking out on behalf of black America (see: "George Bush doesn't care about black people"), we never found out. Kanye kept quiet.

Now Idolator reports 'Ye will join a stacked lineup at South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, this week. The performance could be a good first step to erasing a bad festival experience at Bonnaroo in 2008, when Kanye kept attendees waiting until 4AM to see a lackluster, thankless performance. It could also be a good warm-up for Kanye to headline another massive festival, Coachella, in April.

Boombox wrote that the three-day fest's $319 tickets sold out in record time and speculated that Kanye may have had something to do with it. PopEater wondered if Kanye would be ready for Coachella after tarnishing Bonnaroo in '08 and ruining the VMAs in '09. Now our fingers are crossed that the April 17 gig at Coachella marks the debut of an increasingly adultlike Kanye West.

►Why Doesn't Anyone Get Kanye West's Jokes?
►Is Kanye Ready for Coachella? Is He Done Ruining Big Events?

See the flashy video that announced Kanye's SXSW appearance:

Is Kanye Growing Up? Sound Off on Facebook

Tags: Kanye West

Comments

(25)

Monday 14 March

By maria1963

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Is he still here?!

By Ernest DeBrew

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I am afraid that he is here and staying for good.

By Bud

The man ERRRRRRR child is an IDIOT !

By mitchell cregar

A leopard is a leopard, no matter what color the spots are. He is a creationof the media, just like the Alaskan Crab Sarah Palin.The media can make him go away. People who run their moutrhs and say dumb things are doing it for attention. Do not give it to them

By jaywest71

He's a punk, and always will be.

By denizio13

Nice to see him sober for a change

By Dawn

or what.

By jeffrey lebowski

i don't care what he says, does or thinks, kaney will now and forever be the South Park Gay Fish...

By J

"sorry, haters -- just own it"

Oh, brother. Did a 12-year-old write this "news story?"

By RMI

So let me get this straight. The people who's "opinion" is that he's a great artist count more than the once who think he's crap? Just own that! You're opinion is just an opinion no matter how many people agree.

By Don

Oh! for Pete's sake...He's not changesd only his act. Anyone can act and fool thoes stupid enough to buy it. When your caught or put into the system you play the game and Kanye West is very minipulative and a social path. Just talk to any one in jail or prison and you will soon learn, you're being taken for a ride...So, enjoy the lie! He's still selfish, self consumed, arragant, full of pride and a silent racist.

By frank

an artist with great merit??? how bout a ghetto thug with the morals of a crapper rapper?

By dave

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west needs to go south(six feet under) talentless punk!!!

By Rena

This is so hilarious! I don't care if he has changed in his personal life or not, I just want his creativity to no be affected by this sudden dose of humanity. I loved when he acted like some bizarre acting alien kid! I am a huge fan of his music.
Everyone keeps talking about how he is manipulative, I would agree that he is. He is gaining fans everyday and getting people who matter to him to focus on his music. Most people who are fans say this, "Kanye West is a jerk but...." It always ends with I LOVE HIS MUSIC.. So darlings in the end it all boils down to that.

By lara

he is pure fake. He wrecked his career by being an fool so now he is trying to make it like he suddenly turned nice and grownup!! right!!! fake fake fake!!!

By gwisca03

Kanye may be a jerk, its no secret, he's even said it himself. But you have to admit it, he is talented. I think personally he's one of the greatest rappers of our generation. Most of the people that don't agree don't even listen to rap music in the first place, so you have no merit in saying that he does or doesn't have talent!

By FIDK

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OK, First thing. Don't say Rap and music in the same sentence. And what is his talent?
Rap isn't talent, Talking BS during clips of other people's work does not equal talent.
Now asking some rappers to read and write music could show some talent. Making up new noises and making them between profanities is a bit childish, but, If they could write it down so other foul mouthed anti-everythings could read it and make the same noise and rants WOULD take talent.
So far it's just kids teaching other kids how to act out and practice vulgar words.

By mm

His recent video depicting what appear to be hanging corpses in the lair of a serial killer, all women, has permanently turned me off as far as possible from his work. He seems to be advocating the murder of women. The video itself is a hate crime in and of itself in my opinion. I cannot understand how anyone who does not hate women, can have any respect for him after that video.

Tuesday 15 March

By jay

Ok, if one artists does something like this, it's artistic, but because it's Kanye, It's a hate crime. Straight up stupidity mm.

By great granny

Kanye, great granny is so proud of you.

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