The last few years has seen talk of a so called celebrity cult, deemed the ‘illuminati’, go into overdrive. Stars from all corners of the entertainment industry have been accused by the movement’s most vocal critics, most of whom circulate their theories on the internet forums, chat rooms, and social networking websites.
It appears the industry is hitting back at the once-laughable, now conceivable claims, with Kanye West this week speaking up on the largely un-addressed topic. The rapper’s use of ‘out-there’ imagery, most recently in his ‘Runaway’ short film, has seen him propelled to the top of the list of those supposedly ‘in and of’ the cult.
Check out what he had to say after the jump. (Plus my heated Two Pence)
Writing on Twitter last night, West said:
“I’ve got question about “the illuminati” … what is it exactly ??? … and why do people think pop stars have a membership???!!! LOL”
Going on to add:
“Is illuminati and devil worshipping like the same thing … do they have a social network that celebs can sign up for?
Question… can you devil worship on the new iphone??? LOL!!!
What’s better for devil worshipping Iphone or the Droid… Does lucifer return text… is he or she on Skype? Don’t wanna be sexist.”
While West adopted a light-hearted tone when addressing the matter on Twitter, he took a more hard-line approach when justifying his controversial lyrics in a freestyle from last year. He told MTV’s Sway:
“There’s this line where I say, ‘I sold my soul to the devil, that’s a crappy deal,’ and all these people said, ‘What you mean you sold your soul to the devil?’ But when I say it, I’m saying, when I allow other people’s ideals to interfere with what I know is true to myself, that’s the devil.
So, it’s like, people talking mess on the blogs is the devil or …trying to call me names, that’s what the devil is. And me thinking twice about what it is that’s really in my heart because of what people’s reaction would be is me selling my soul to the devil.”
Further asserting:
“You’re on earth for only 80, 90 a hundred years. I have to create from my dreams, from the dreams I had as a 5-year-old, and use everything — all the greatest people and all the tools I have around me — and ask as many questions as I can to help facilitate and bring this out. And this [film] is one of the first examples of a dream coming true.” {Source}
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Sam’s Two Pence
As echoed many a time, I seriously ‘can’t’ with all this illuminati nonsense. Granted there are undoubtedly things both rational and irrational which go on behind the scenes which we’ll never know of, this is all becoming a bit much.
Yours truly comes from a religious background (actively practising till this day), and was raised to believe in both supernatural good, and supernatural evil – which makes the plausibility of such cult existing not as far fetched as it may be to some. The big ‘However’, though, is the grounds on which these supposedly ‘enlightened’ critics go about propagating their message, as well as the basis of their argument to begin with.
“Did you see the crucifix in his video?” “Did you hear her say Satan three times when the song is played backwards” “She sold her soul and now she’s getting all these hits”. Just a few of the ludicrous sound-bites becoming all the rage these days.
Yes, it’s important to pay close attention to the lyrics and imagery in musical output. Yet the rampant sensationalism of it all is a joke. The hypocrisy of the whole shabang is that instead of ‘enlightening’ the masses in ‘free’ arenas, such thoughts are circulated via religious DVD’s, CD’s, and websites. All of which generate $$$. Put simply, “illuminati slaying” is big business. A way of life for some, if you will.
How then does this make such preachers, and ‘all-knowing’ figures, any better than the stars they claim are ‘selling’ evil ideas? Surely, enlightenment of this nature should not come at a cost?
For this reason and so much more, I call BS.