SUPERBOWL SUPERNOVA

Shit could get menacin', frightenin', find help
Sometimes I scare myself, myself
Shit could get menacin', frightenin', find help
Sometimes I scare myself, myself

While an asteroid called 2024 YR4, with an estimated size of 40–100 meters, is headed toward Earth, an exploding star called Ye appears to be hurtling toward his final destruction on the night of the 2025 Super Bowl. Is a cosmic collision inevitable?

Observing (Kan)Ye once again courting controversy with a multi-level post offense on X—leaving no taboo unturned (Jews, Hitler, Black people, White people, fat women, porn, etc.)—I'm assuming he's either trolling or has some sort of psychosexual kink, deriving pleasure from testing his First Amendment freedoms by self-immolating in a form of BDSM sadism via social media. He has certainly pushed Elon Musk's free speech policy on X to its limit. Perhaps that's the point—like a Black Lenny Bruce, pushing the boundaries of acceptability to see how truly free the platform and society are. Regardless of any sympathy I have with the libertarian position on free speech, it's a challenging time to be a fan of an artist who is referring to himself as "Yedolf Yitler" and seems hell-bent on destroying his reputation at any cost.

Upon my first read, I saw (Kan)Ye’s high-wire act across the razor’s edge of X as a deliberate victory lap of offensiveness, following his previous cancellation and self-imposed exile in Japan after his last outrageous outburst several years ago. This appeared to be his way of not just lifting his head above the parapet but attempting to run an audacious 40-yard dash of offensive tweets over a nearly 48-hour period. Is it meant to coincide with Kendrick Lamar’s (offline) Super Bowl performance tonight? Who knows? But if (Kan)Ye is taking any inspiration from one of his fashion heroes, Alexander McQueen—who fantasised about killing himself on the catwalk—then maybe he plans to go out in similar fashion (pun intended) online. Or maybe, given that (Kan)Ye has often cited performance artist and comedian Andy Kaufman as an influence on his work, it’s become impossible to determine how much of this madness is real or merely a game—one in which he tests the limits of his impunity within the social contract.

See this a type of high that won't come down
This the type of high that get you gunned down
Yeezy, Yeezy trollin' OD, huh?
Turn TMZ to Smack DVD, huh?
Russell Simmons wanna pray for me too
I'ma pray for him 'cause he got #MeToo'd
Thinkin' what if that happened to me too
Then I'm on E! News

It’s hard to believe that it was only three years ago that (Kan)Ye’s 10th studio album, Donda, came out, where he dispensed with swearing and appeared to be searching for the light of God with tracks such as "24," "No Child Left Behind," and "Come to Life." Now, we have a mega-rich celebrity Godzilla who has seemingly offended everyone on the planet equally and can find few defenders outside of some Gen Z edgelords. The consensus forming seems to be that he is a desperately sick individual in need of professional help, with some expressing concern that he may either take his own life or be taken out by powerful forces. But as a self-professed zombie, perhaps he is more like rap’s Rasputin—a supernatural spirit-devil who seems uncancelable after the first attempt, returning to life time and time again, just like a monster in a horror movie.

I can feel the spirits all around me
I think Prince and Mike was tryna warn me
They know I got demons all on me
Devil been tryna make an army
They been strategizin' to harm me
They don't know they dealin' with a zombie
Niggas been tryna test my Gandhi
Just because I'm dressed like Abercrombie

Either way, we are about to see just how mortal he truly is as this current cycle of shock and awe plays out, which many attribute to nothing more than desperate attention-seeking and insecurity about his fading relevance. As his cyclone of posts on X the past few days swept everything before it, he reminded me of Linda Blair in The Exorcist—spewing bile from the bedroom as the priests struggle to free her from unholy possession.

It would be kind of wild to see (Kan)Ye, in his current demonic form, turn up at the Super Bowl to crash the stage like Bane in The Dark Knight Rises while the Pulitzer-winning Lamar delivers his expected star turn. Personally, I would love to see some rock 'n' roll sabotage like this tear a hole through the grossly corporate sporting event. Ten years ago, almost to the day, (Kan)Ye performed his song "All Day" (a collaboration with Paul McCartney, of all people) at the 2015 BRIT Awards—complete with flamethrowers and the entire UK grime scene, including Skepta, Stormzy, and Novelist. You can see the sheer look of disbelief on the faces of the onlookers as he creates controlled anarchy on stage.

Back then, he made drama on stage.

Now, it's mostly off it.