There may be a handful of our readers who are unfamiliar with the name and career of Mr. Kanye West

National Review, Sept 26, 2005

There may be a handful of our readers who are unfamiliar with the name and career of Mr. Kanye West. Mr. West is a rap singer from Chicago, whose past extracurricular activities have concentrated on propagandizing for the view that AIDS was created by the U.S. government as part of a program to exterminate black people.

Well, Mr. West managed to get himself in the news twice toward the end of August. On the 27th he hosted a party at the very exclusive Shore Club hotel in Miami, Fla. One of the guests was another rap figure no doubt well known to NATIONAL REVIEW readers, Mr. Suge Knight. Unfortunately, while the partygoers were jitterbugging to the Pussycat Dolls' version of Don't Cha, an unidentified person walked up to Mr. Knight and shot him in the leg. Police are investigating. Six days later, at a telethon concert to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina, Mr. West delivered himself of the opinion that "George Bush doesn't care about black people." For the sake of attendees at his parties, as well as for the general level of sanity in the public square, let's hope we have heard the last of Mr. West for a while. Twenty years would be about right.