Director Joseph Kahn Announces He Won’t Work With Kanye West, Compares Kardashian Culture To ‘Trump World’
Music video director Joseph Kahn, known for working with famous artists such as Lady Gaga and Eminem, recently announced that he would never direct a music video for rapper Kanye West, reported Business Insider.
“I find the Kanye/Kardashian culture so — to me it’s hand in hand with the Trump world. There’s a lack of thought that’s masquerading as thought. It’s using the power of brand as the power of thought. And if anything, I’m so immersed in the power of brands, I try to put thought in the brands and I don’t see thought going on there. I just see crazy people flinging around and just trying to make money and call it thought.”
Kahn’s 30-year career has included working on several of Taylor Swift’s music videos, including “Wildest Dreams” and “…Ready For It?” Kanye and Taylor are known for not getting along after the rapper jumped up on the stage while Taylor accepted the best female video award at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards to announce that Beyoncé should have won the award instead.
Another incident occurred in 2016 when Kanye released a new song that included the lyrics, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b—- famous.”
While Kahn may dislike Kanye in part because of his allegiance to Taylor, he has also stated that the “Ghost Town” artist’s strong affinity for current President Donald Trump has made him steer away from the rapper.
“I choose who I want to work with. I have to be very careful what to use my skill set for. Everybody loves to make money, obviously, everybody loves to be comfortable, but you also have to be careful what you put out there. Look, I make silly music videos for a living, but I just want to make sure that I’m being responsible with the power that I’ve been given.”
This summer, Kahn published a series of tweets condemning Kanye’s wife Kim Kardashian during her campaign to free grandmother Alice Johnson from prison, reported Entertainment Tonight. Kim met with Donald Trump at the White House to discuss Johnson’s case and push prison reform.
“What Kim Kardashian has done is used her connection with Trump to free a family member and score some PR points. In return, the right wing Trump party gets to use it as an example of his liberalism and heart and not do anything else. It’s called propaganda.”
Kahn added, “So the lesson here is sucking up to Trump works in our banana republic. Democracy RIP,” and “If anything should be clear by now, Kim and Kanye are trying to get Trump re-elected. #DragonEnergy.”
