Nick Cave addresses his love of Kanye West’s music amid pro-Nazi statements: “I endeavour to seek beauty wherever it presents itself”
In the latest edition of his Red Hand Files newsletter, Nick Cave defends his love of Kanye West’s music while condemning West’s antisemitic views.
In recent weeks, West’s account on X posted a series of antisemitic messages, including posts in which he declared, “I am a Nazi” and “I love Hitler”. He also described Adolf Hitler as “fresh” as well as hateful remarks about the Jewish community.
Additionally, the rapper purchased a Super Bowl advert, which he filmed on his phone. The advert directed viewers of the television broadcast to his website, which only sold a swastika t-shirt. As a result, his store was later taken down by Shopify.
Cave has spoken on multiple occasions about his fondness for West’s music. Recently, he appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs and named ‘Yeezus’ as one of the eight songs he’d take with him if he was stranded on a desert island. Additionally, in a newsletter, he stated that West’s song ‘I Am A God’ is the one piece of music he’d like to be played at his funeral.
Due to his prior comments, Cave has been inundated with letters from fans which he says have been “expressing, in no uncertain terms, disapproval of my fondness for Kanye West’s music”.
In response, Cave began by condemning West’s actions which he disapproves of in no uncertain terms, before adding, “However, I want to challenge the notion that we can separate art from the artist. I’ve written on this subject before (#149), but I thought it might be worth revisiting. From reading your recent letters, it appears that some of you assume I hold this belief. To be clear, I do not. 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 continued: “The artist’s work proclaims, ‘This is me. I am here. This is what I am.’ 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. This is what I strive to do, and this is the enterprise undertaken by all genuine artists. The remarkable utility of art lies in its audacity to transfigure our corrupted state and create something beautiful.”
Later on in the newsletter, Cave added: “We are all broken, flawed, and suffering human beings, each a disaster in our own right, each with the capacity to cause great harm, each brimming with misguided notions, perhaps the most deluded of which is the belief that we 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. 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 also labelled West’s views as “odious and disappointing” as well as describing his antisemitism as “sickening” before concluding, “I endeavour to seek beauty wherever it presents itself. 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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