This is aesthetically amazing. I love that the animated version of him looks as though he needs a haircut as well. That sort of continuity makes me deeply happy. I also really enjoy this because despite having corralled Hype Williams into doing the video, it reminds me of a number of other visual artists WHICH MAKES THE VIDEO TOOOOOTALLY RACIALLY LOADED.

Heartless from kwest on Vimeo.

Which in full disclosure is sort of a theme in my maybe paranoid delusional subconscious racial narratives of Kanye West videos circa since I’ve been blogging for this site.

First and foremost I’m reminded of Ralph Bakshi (obviously, since Hype and Ye were said to have been inspired by 1981′s American Pop) but there’s also a whiff of Patrick Nagel because of the American Apparel aerobics-whore styling of the girls.

So for those who don’t know, Patrick Nagel was an American Artist (November 25, 1945-February 4, 1984) who was super into depicting women in a stylized art deco fashion. Most of the female subjects were stark white (not just like pale but like alabaster albino-steez). Even if you weren’t familiar with his name, these should jog your memory. Think turquoise silk/angular plastic earrings/’80s hair.

Ralph Bakshi, accomplished filmmaker and animator, was born in 1938 in Israel (at the time Haifa, in the former British Mandate of Palestine) and made his debut with Fritz the Cat in 1972. It was the first animation to ever receive an X rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (contemporary tentacle-robo-penetration-anime-porn probs would’ve made their brains bleed).

But here’s where it gets even more controversial. In 1975 Bakshi made a suuuuuuuuuper uncomfortable movie called Coonskin. An African-American rabbit, fox and bear (brother rabbit, preacher fox and brother bear respectively) grinding to make it to the top of the food chain in a Harlem crime ring.

I know.

If you haven’t seen it, you’re probably scandalized by the name and the anthropomorphizing of animals (crooked animals no less) to depict people of color. But it’s not just about granting an Israeli dude a pass. Yes, Bakshi grew up in the predominantly black and Jewish neighborhood of Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York. Yes, Bakshi was thorough—referencing Uncle Remus storybooks, Iceberg Slim, and enlisting renowned jazz drummer and bandleader Chico Hamilton to create the score as well as having Barry White and Scatman Crothers (Louie the garbage man on “Chico and the Man” AAAAAND the voice of Jazz, an autobot on Transformers****many many points gained here) do the voices. And yes, he was responsible for hiring the first African-American animators to work at Disney on a number of his projects.

But regardless of Bakshi’s intent, before the film’s slated screening at MoMA The Congress of Racial Equality started picketing and screaming to moviegoers and film critics not to watch the movie that they claimed was deeply offensive and totally racist. Al Sharpton was there. Maybe or maybe not wielding a pitchfork.

I’m a big big fan of Bakshi. Wizards was dope as was his iteration of “Mighty Mouse” but since he INTENDED to be vulgar and INTENDED to be racist in order to put stereotypes on blast AND completely and mercilessly derided ignorant white people in scathing depictions does that mean that Coonskin was incredible or is it just a well-intentioned film that highlights the fact that OTHER people shouldn’t fight this battle? Check these images out and you be the judge. Me, I think he is AMAZING. Way more than Kanye. Yeah, I said it.