Watch Kanye West’s Provocative, Voyeuristic ‘Famous’ Video
Kanye West debuted his music video for The Life of Pablo track “Famous” Friday night at a watch party at Los Angeles’ Forum, where a 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. PST crowd witnessed perhaps the most provocative, controversial video of West’s career thus far. The Forum event was live streamed via Tidal, where the “Famous” visual is now streaming exclusively.
The video, an homage to Vincent Desiderio’s painting “Sleep,” offers a voyeuristic look at an orgy post-coital, with West and Kardashian surrounded by the sleeping bodies of famous friends (Rihanna and her ex Chris Brown, whose relationship violently disintegrated in the public eye), family (Caitlyn Jenner), former lovers (Ray J, Amber Rose), business associates (Anna Wintour) and controversial figures (Donald Trump, Bill Cosby and George W. Bush, who didn’t “care about black people”).
Lastly, directly next to West in bed, laid a nude Taylor Swift, who was the lyrical flint that sparked an uproar over the song to begin with.
Many of the video’s stars – Swift, Trump, Cosby and Bush for sure, the rest are up for debate – didn’t actually appear in the video; instead their doppelgängers were created synthetically in almost lifelike detail. Real or not, during an interlude in the video, the credits gave “special thanks” to every celebrity involved “for being famous.”
A representative for George W. Bush responded to West’s video saying: “In case there was any doubt … that is not President Bush … He is in much better shape,” TMZ reported.
West, along with wife Kardashian, was in attendance for the watch party and briefly spoke to the crowd, but did not perform. “I want to thank all y’all, my wife, and y’all supporting ideas and truth,” West told the crowd before replaying the “Famous” video. “I got one question though would y’all like me to play that back?” Desiigner, 2 Chainz, Travis Scott and the Game also attended the event, Billboard reports.
Watch fan-shot footage from the “Famous” event below:
Kanye’s Music Video ‘Famous’ premiered on @TIDALStatus #kanyewest #TidalXFamous #famous pic.twitter.com/9hbMDBoAhH
— Shady Facts (@TheShadeAccount) June 25, 2016