"Kanye West Is Not Picasso"- Leonard Cohen On Modern Celebrity Culture And The Self
A blog post
Oh my god do I love Leonard Cohen. I have been a serious fan of is music since I heard “Chelsea Hotel #2” when I was like 16. It was the beginning of the pandemic, and all I did was listen to music as I dragged through the days- turning an hour of total homework for the day into a multi-hour charade. “Chelsea Hotel #2” was unlike any song I had ever heard- at that time I was a fan of midwest emo, top of the iceberg 90s rock, and 2010s hip-hop. I love Cohen so much I’ve referenced his music in so many stories and poems of my own, and as I explored his discography I fell more in love. Recently, I read one of his poems in Barnes and Noble while skimming the poetry section. The book was a collection of Cohen’s late style raw works published after his death titled The Flame (2018). The poem was called “Kanye West Is Not Picasso”.
I was freaking out in that Barnes and Noble reading this poem. “Why is this hitting me so hard?” I wondered. I mean- I’ve listened to Kanye, I liked him you know, before. But why would Leonard Cohen angrily writing “I am the Kanye West Kanye West thinks he is” almost make me cry? Embarrassing, a little, but strangely powerful too. In the title line, Cohen writes “Kanye West is not Picasso/ I am Picasso”. I think what Lenny is trying to convey here is the way we hate the negative parts of ourselves we see reflected in others- especially celebrities. It feels like a critique on modern celebrity culture more than one on West himself. Cohen compares Kanye to Picasso, and then Picasso to himself, furthering this notion of self- attachment we find within the very public flaws* of celebrities. I love this a lot, it gets even cooler when you think about the role the first person style plays, which makes it tremendously easy to slip into this holier than thou mindset of the narrator. This continues even more in the line “When he shoves your ass off the stage/ I am the real Kanye West”. Referencing the 2009 VMA incident with Taylor Swift. Celebrities' actions in public are not their own, they are owned by us, who are thinking about them and the manner in which they occur (ex- “shoving your ass”). A wild thing for Leonard Cohen to have written, but nonetheless a great poem.
The last four lines take on a new tone, tossing Kanye out entirely. “I don’t get around much anymore/ I never have” is such an out of pocket, very late-style lyric. Cohen's death, just a year later than this poem was written in 2016, adds an ominous air to this line, which in the interpretive context of the self in modern celebrity culture tells us a connection to the real, separate self can still be made. This is followed by the gunshot-to-the-heart line “I only come alive after a war/ And we have not had it yet”, signaling a call for something greater to come and take us out of this hellscape world filled with grandiose celebrities to distract from real problems, like war. Like I said, it pulls the reader out of this constructed thought the rest of the poem worked to set up, reminding us to not get lost in the celebrity relatability culture that seems to expand the more technology dependent we become.
This poem was written in 2015, before the levels of para-social relationships between celebrities and regular people were as prevalent as we see them now. As are all interpretations of art, this is probably not what Leonard Cohen meant in writing this poem. However, I think it brings up some interesting thoughts. If you want to read other interpretations of this poem, I found a pretty good Reddit thread on it. I fully believe Leonard Cohen is Piscasso, Dylan, and Tesla, but maybe I just like him because I feel like I can relate to him a lot. Oh no! I missed the whole point of my interpretation!
If I don’t contradict myself, what do I do?
Until next time,
Roxy
*When I talk about flaws I mean like when Tom Holland spoils Marvel movies, or when celebrities have a bad hair day or something. I don’t mean hate speech of any kind. Mental illness is not an excuse to be antisemitic, an asshole, or mean to Taylor Swift (I love my billionaire capitalist pop music).