Kanye West’s most recent video, Famous, has attracted a lot of controversy since he debuted it last week.
The video begins with a pan across the waxlike sleeping faces of a number of famous and high profile public figures, including Kanye, wife Kim, two of their exes Ray J and Amber Rose, Taylor Swift, Chris Brown, Rihanna, Donald Trump and Caitlyn Jenner among a few others. The video then zooms out revealing their naked bodies.
Celebrities depicted in the video, and also those who did not make the cut, have voiced their opinions on the video and the questionable use of nudity without the consent.
The video is inspired by a 2008 realist painting by Vincent Desiderio, who is a big fan of the video. Speaking to the New York Times, the artist said: “I was really speechless. Kanye saw things in it that I don’t know how he could’ve seen. Kanye is truly an artist.”
Kanye took Vincent Desiderio's "Sleep" & brought it to life with a modern twist.. if that isn't genius idk what is. pic.twitter.com/bSDddfQFNo
— rey (@reyablo) June 25, 2016
While Kanye’s creation has received praise from the man who inspired the video, he has also received objections from others due to it’s provocative nature. ‘Girls’ actress, Lena Dunham labelled the video ‘sickening’ in a Facebook post and added: “it feels informed and inspired by the aspects of our culture that make women feel unsafe even in their own beds, in their own bodies.”
Dunham also made reference to Taylor Swift in her social media post, one of the naked celebrities depicted in the music video. Swift and Kanye have come to blows a multiple times, however in this circumstance the blonde singer is said to be ‘horrified’.
Kanye has defended the music video, stating that it is a “comment on fame” and that all the shots that had sexual connotations were removed from the final cut.
And as alway Kim K had her say even though she hadn’t seen the final cut until everybody else had. Speaking to Women’s Wear Daily, the reality star said: “It was, like, three, four months in the making, so I obviously knew it was going on, but I didn’t actually see the final cut until he debuted it at the Forum. It was really cool.”