Five Times Kanye West’s Songs Predicted The Future
A very serious lyrical examination of whether Kanye West is a psychic.
From the moment David Bowie released his fifth studio album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, in 1972, he put into motion the birth and career of Kanye West.
Admittedly, that’s more of a theory than fact. But as with any convincing conspiracy, the more you learn, it becomes all the more undeniable.
Photographed by Brian Ward, the cover art of Ziggy Stardust sees a young Bowie, languidly perched at the doorstep of the now-defunct London tailor, K.West. Above him looms the now infamous K.West sign, owned by Henry Konn. The “K” stood for his last initial, while “West” referenced the locale of West End of London — or that’s what they want you to believe.
The Rise And Fall…‘s album cover.
“People read so much into it,” Bowie told Rolling Stone in 1993. “They thought ‘K. West’ must be some sort of code for ‘quest.’ It took on all these sort of mystical overtones.”
On opening track ‘Five Years’, Bowie envisioned the end of the world: “News had just come over / We had five years left to cry in / News guy wept and told us / Earth was really dying.” But the following song, ‘Starman’, detailed our alien saviour: “There’s a starman waiting in the sky / He’d like to come and meet us / But he thinks he’d blow our minds”.
Five years later, on June 8, 1977, Kanye Omari West was born. Whether West descended from the heavens to protect Earth or not, it seems that Bowie’s supernatural gift of prediction was somehow passed down to the Chicago rapper.
While a cursory Google search for ‘Kanye West + predicting the future’ yields stories of the rapper declaring his inevitable fame, just like Bowie, West’s best predictions are woven into his lyrics. Here are five examples that prove Yeezy’s psychic abilities.
‘Can’t Tell Me Nothing’, Graduation (2007)
“Don’t ever fix your lips like collagen / And say something when you gon’ end up apolog’ing”
Kim Kardashian West is integral to the contours and very fabric of pop culture, keeping it together like sparkly glue. But living her life in the spotlight has also had its detriments, putting her many indiscretions centre-stage — while Kim has vehemently denied using lip fillers, her perfectly plump pout has squeezed out its fair share of apologies.
In 2017, Kim took to Snapchat to defend makeup vlogger Jeffree Star for his comments about her makeup line, which then devolved into an unwarranted exoneration of his highly publicised racist actions.
“I get it’s a serious deal if you say racial things, but I do believe in people changing, and people that apologise, I will give them the benefit of the doubt,” she said in Star’s defence. “I know better than anyone that I hate when people bring up my past or mistakes I’ve made in the past. So let him live.”
While Kim has vehemently denied using lip fillers, her perfectly plump pout has squeezed out its fair share of apologies.
Conflating her demonisation over her infamous sex tape with Star’s racist vitriol didn’t sit well with fans. After online backlash, Kim hopped on Snapchat again, this time to apologise, marking the first of many on-screen pleas for forgiveness from the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star.
From using slurs when people didn’t recognise her Pamela Anderson Halloween costume, to making insensitive comments about weight loss, Kim has had to pay her fair share of penance.
‘So Appalled’, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
I’m so appalled, Spalding ball / Balding Donald Trump taking dollars from y’all”
Let’s enjoy this vintage toupée diss that we’re likely to never hear again. West’s meeting with Trump at the tail end of 2016 came as a shock, but it was his outspoken alignment with the President in 2017 that had fans missing the old Kanye. Hindsight makes his shoutout to The Apprentice host a little more ominous, but West wasn’t wrong.
Since his inauguration in 2017, Trump has not only taken dollars away from Americans through tax hikes but also after causing the U.S. stock market to “mini-crash” after confirming increased tariffs on imported good from China. TLDR; he’s made an appalling mockery of government and is taking “dollars from ya’ll”.
‘New Day’, Watch The Throne (2011)
“And I’ll never let my son have an ego/He’ll be nice to everyone, wherever we go / I mean I might even make him be Republican / So everybody know he love white people”
Bu Thiam, Def Jam’s Vice-President of A&R, told MTV how ‘New Day’s’ concept emerged from a conversation between Jay Z and West about their impending fatherhood.
“Both of the guys don’t have kids yet,” he said. “So, it was just a conversation that they were talking about just having kids and how they’re gonna raise their kids because of the success that they’re having now.”
In the context of 2011, West proclaiming he’d raise his son to be a Republican seemed ironic, but it was almost exactly a year after the birth of Saint West that Ye met with Donald Trump at Trump Tower.
‘Gold Digger’, Late Registration (2005)
“She got one of your kids, got you for 18 years / His baby mamma car and crib is bigger than his /… She went to the doctor, got lipo with your money.”
Blac Chyna began dating Rob Kardashian in January 2016 and became engaged just one month later, causing one of the biggest feuds within the Kardashian family. In ‘How Blac Chyna Beat The Kardashians At Their Own Game’ Sylvia Bell celebrated Chyna’s triumph over the Kardashian conglomerate, and the world rejoiced alongside her. “Long live Angela Kardashian,” Bell wrote, “May she forever reign.”
After falling pregnant to Rob, Chyna effectively gave birth to the first child bearing the Kardashian surname. Yet with the arrival of Dream Kardashian, cracks began to splinter the already tumultuous relationship between the new parents. Petty arguments flared, phone numbers were leaked, and as the two sparred online, Rob claimed he paid $100,000 for her to get her post-baby body back through several plastic surgery procedures, including liposuction.
‘Gold Digger’, Late Registration (2005)
My psychic told me she’ll have a ass like Serena Trina, Jennifer Lopez, four kids / And I gotta take all they bad asses to ShowBiz?”
In 2012, when Kim and Kanye began dating, it already felt like a fateful union of two megastars — the braggadocious rapper and reality television royalty.
Whether Kanye was relaying a reading from a psychic or sending his own prophetic forecast into the world, he managed to receive a premonition not only of Kim’s most famous asset but also the number of kids they have today.
Kish Lal is a writer and critic based in New York City. She is on Twitter.