Kanye West’s new video, Famous, is about the idea of famous people all, quite literally being in bed together. An image of the last-supper-like Orgy (posted below) reveals the sum of the video. Unfortunately the video itself merely offers closeups of the affected individuals.
The image follows Vincent Desiderio’s ‘Sleep’ right down to the poses, which begs the question: Is Kanye a lot deeper than any of us really want to admit? See for yourself:
So what is the real message here, who are these people, and does it matter if it is actually them? The message is clear and rather simple: Fame and sex are intertwined and we as a culture show our prudeness through our inability to separate the two. I’m not in lock step with the argument, because I believe there are several different forms of fame that go with different social groups. I will agree that we do sexualize fame in a really blatant way and that in a patriarchy the responsibility is on the female more than the male to stay attractive. Kanye details this specifically by his use of males and females in the narrative.
Who are they, you ask? George W. Bush, Anna Wintour,Donald Trump, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Taylor Swift, Kanye himself, Kim Kardashian, Ray J, Amber Rose, Caitlyn Jenner, and Bill Cosby. Now we can debate why these groupings are here and what commentary is being made on fame based on who is there but is it really worth the effort?