Kanye West paid a lot of money for a photo of Whitney Houston's bathroom and people are really mad
Kanye West just made everyone mad again, but this time it had nothing to do with "dragon energy" or politics. It's because he paid $85,000 for a photo of Whitney Houston's bathroom.
This week, rapper Pusha-T — who is signed to West's label GOOD Music — revealed that the artwork for his album DAYTONA was changed at the last minute because of the producer of the project, Mr. West himself.
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Though it wasn't revealed until Thursday evening, the change came on Wednesday in the early hours of the morning, just a few days before the album was scheduled to drop.
"[West] changed my artwork last night at 1:00 a.m. because he wasn't feelin' it," Pusha told Angie Martinez in an interview on Wednesday.
He revealed that initial photographs had been picked out and approved, until he got a call from a no caller ID number that happened to be West. According to Pusha, West told him over the phone that "this is what people need to see to go along with this music."
The photograph that West was so insistent on?
A 2006 snapshot of Whitney Houston's bathroom, which Kanye himself paid $85,000 to license.
album 1 PUSHA T DAYTONA dropping 2mrw pic.twitter.com/M1UPvax5fa
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) May 24, 2018
"I feel like the cover represents an organized chaos," Pusha told Entertainment Weekly. "The energy of the album is a bit chaotic, but it’s all in place. Looks at that cover, I’m sure whoever frequents that bathroom or area knew whatever they wanted to find and knew where it was."
Houston battled drug addiction and died in 2012 from drowning (with drugs in her system), so when West posted the image on Thursday evening, the backlash began immediately after people realized that the image was of her bathroom shot for tabloids. Many called out West for his exploitation of Houston's private struggles.
Pusha T “Daytona” album cover is a tabloid photo of Whitney Houston’s bathroom 😬😅 pic.twitter.com/TJd7Uk7OZF
— Joe Coscarelli (@joecoscarelli) May 24, 2018
Kanye West is a tone deaf, exploitative cliche, hiding under the guise of creative freedom. What’s so funny about how cliche he is, is how so “effortfully” contrarian he is. The Whitney’s bathroom album art is a trash thing to do. She died from this thing for Gods sake!
— Damilola Marcus (@OmogeDami) May 25, 2018
Since Kanye Got Whitney Houston’s Bathroom As Pusha T Cover, Somebody Use The Bathroom Kim Kardashian Got Robbed In As An Album Cover
— Jean (@xankadaver) May 24, 2018
Kanye West claims 2 have been suffering from opiate addiction himself. Instead of exploiting Whitney Houston’s struggles 4 his own personal gain, why doesn’t he post a picture of his own drug stash? What he’s doing isn’t “edgy” or “artsy”; it’s exploitative, wrong & disrespectful
— Jackie Talks Nerdy ☔️ (@JackieTalkNerdy) May 24, 2018
To disrespect a titan like Whitney Houston, to reduce her legacy to a single image of a place and time in her life, is EXACTLY what Kanye seems to complain that the media does to him all the time. Indeed, the irony.
— Toyin Ojih Odutola (@obia_thethird) May 24, 2018
Pusha-T and West have yet to respond to the controversy that has bubbled because of the album art. 'Ye has instead chosen to tweet about the "overwhelming positive responses" to the music, which is now available on all streaming platforms.
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