For months now, Kanye West’s voice, of all things, has baffled fans as the rapper has noticeably switched his speech pattern from that of his signature passionate, hip-hop flavored sound to that of what many black people consider to be, well, a “white voice.” Now, the confounding rapper has explained to “The JV Show” on San Francisco’s Wild 94.9 radio station why his “white voice” comes out in interviews.
In the interview, West explained that his voice switch is based off the idea behind his previous statements about how classism has replaced racism. He explained that when he is invited to Dinner For Schmucks-type situations, in which people of higher class invite ridicule their lower class dinner guests, he wonders if he’s being invited because he’s actually wanted or if he’s just there to play the entertaining buffoon.
“But really what I didn’t know and I didn’t really understand this term until a couple of years ago, is it wasn’t about race,” West said. “It’s about class. And it was a classist move that even when you get invited to certain dinner parties, or even when you’re in certain magazines, it’s still like a Dinner With Schmucks situation. Are they inviting you to be a part of what you’re doing or are they inviting you to laugh at your teeth? They ask you a million questions like, ‘Oh, those are cool teeth. What’s that?’ And then we have our thing that every time we do it. We give ‘em the ‘White Voice.’ So, it goes both ways.”
According to West or society is on the brink of a shift in classism, thanks in part to self-made billionaires in San Francisco’s Silicone Valley, and he claimed that he’s at the forefront of that change.
“We’re right now in a crash of the classists,” West said. “Because America being the newest country and especially out here in San Francisco where people can ‘bam,’ just become a billionaire off an idea…The shift is gonna change and I think I’m one of the people at the forefront because I had to fight to get into fashion shows eight years ago.”
Leave it to West to take such a seemingly simple and confounding issue like his “white voice” and use it expound, in an interesting way, upon issues of race and class in America.
Check out a list of other stars who have been accused of being whitewashed below. – nicholas robinson
