should we boycott our fave artists when their actions are problematic?

As I scrolled through Twitter while blasting Late Registration through my headphones, I came across images of a blonde haired Kanye West side by side with Donald Trump. All I could do was sigh. I can’t say that I was shocked because nothing Kanye does is really shocking anymore. I was, however, disappointed.

By Chantè Russell, AFROPUNK contributor

So where does that leave us? Since I can’t vibe with everything an artist says anymore does that mean that they, along with all their work, are “cancelled”? To be honest, I just can’t pretend that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy isn’t a masterpiece just because Kanye may or may not have lost his mind. I still sing A Long Walk and Tyrone every time I hear them, and you better believe that I will rap every single word to A Milli with no hesitation.

Of course there is the internal struggle of continuing to support someone whose views apparently oppose yours, but they’re still your faves for a reason. While it may be hard to believe now, they gave you some of the greatest music to ever grace any of your playlists. Reliving their best eras through old work may be the closest you ever get to what you once had, so you might as well enjoy it.

Problematic faves are a touchy subject because there’s so much emotion involved. The love/hate relationship you have with Kanye, or whoever else went from blessing your speakers to blemishing your social media timeline, may have you feeling down, but at least you have the old times to hold on to. In the end, all we can do is hope our problematic faves will either return to glory or go quietly into retirement instead of continuing to tarnish their own reputations. If not, we turn up the music and go on about our lives as I did while scrolling past Kanye and Trump.