The rapper Kayne West dominated the news last Thursday due to his odd meeting with President Donald Trump. But a few hours before the rapper arrived at the White House in a “Make America Great Again” cap and spouted off a 10-minute rant in which he explained why he supported Trump. a poem, composed in March 2015 titled “Kanye West Is Not Picasso," emerged by Leonard Cohen, the revered singer, songwriter, poet who died last year at the age of 82, in which he scathingly disses West from beyond the grave.
It comes from The Flame a posthumous collection of poetry written in the months before his death, it showcases Cohen's full range of lyricism, combining poetry, illustrations and writings. Written in March 2015 in the poem mentioned he takes issue with the Hip Hop stars boastful nature who once declared on stage in 2013, of being the famed Cubist painter from Spain. “I am Picasso!” adding for good measure: “I am Michelangelo! I am Basquiat! I am Walt Disney! I am Steve Jobs.
After Amanda Shires tweeted the Canadian songsmith’s 21-line poem it went viral receiving over 3,000 likes. “Kanye West is not Picasso/ I am Picasso,” the poem starts. “Kanye West is not Edison/ I am Edison.” It continued: “I am the Kanye West of Kanye West/ The Kanye West/ of the great bogus shift of bull— culture.” “I am the Kanye West Kanye West thinks he is/ When he shoves your ass off the stage/ I am the real Kanye West,” it reads.
He also seems to throw some shade at Jay-Z, writing, "Jay-Z is not the Dylan of anything / I am the Dylan of anything." Cohen's poem later switches focus back to West, alluding to his habit of crashing other people's stages — be it Taylor Swift's or Beck's when he writes, "I am the Kanye West Kanye West thinks he is / When he shoves your ass off the stage."
According to the foreword for The Flame, penned by Cohen's son Adam, it "contains my father's final efforts as a poet. It was what he was staying alive to do, his sole breathing purpose at the end."
As well as this new collection of lyrics and poetry, a posthumous Cohen album is also in the works. The news was confirmed by his son Adam last month, who said: “To make a long story short, I believe that there are some really beautiful new songs of Leonard Cohen that no one’s heard that are at some point going to come out.”
Read Cohens full ode to to "bullshit culture" below.
KAYNE WEST IS NOT PICASSO
I am Picasso
Kanye West is not Edison
I am Edison
I am Tesla
Jay-Z is not the Dylan of anything
I am the Dylan of anything
I am the Kanye West of Kanye West
The Kanye West
Of the great bogus shift of bullshit culture
From one boutique to another
I am Tesla
I am his coil
The coil that made electricity soft as a bed
I am the Kanye West Kanye West thinks he is
When he shoves your ass off the stage
I am the real Kanye West
I don’t get around much anymore
I never have
I only come alive after a war
And we have not had it yet
March 2015
Excerpted from The Flame:-
https://www.leonardcohenshop.com/collections/the-flame/products/the-flame-book
Poems Notebooks Lyrics Drawings by Leonard Cohen, edited by Robert Faggen and Alexandra Pleshoyano, Copyright © 2018 by Leonard Cohen. All rights reserved.
