The Cost of Being an Iconoclast: Illuminating the Behavioral Reciprocity between America and Ye 

Abstract

Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, admitted to, and then retracted, a personal diagnosis of bipolar disorder. He may be the most polarizing figure in popular culture, a prophet abandoned by his disciples. The author views his myriad of iconoclastic and controversial actions alongside the American public’s response to those actions through the lens of Kendrick Lamar’s seminal work To Pimp a Butterfly. America’s response to Ye’s incessant antagonism is examined through the dimensions of defiance, depression, anger, revenge, and, most importantly, duality as illuminated through Lamar’s album. An exploration is pursued between the interplay of America’s response to Ye’s behaviors, the relevance of mental instability, and leveraging Ye as an illustration of the broader assumptions made in response to any given individual’s personal mental health struggles.