NSFW (language/cartoon gore)

When the Kanye West/Spike Jonze collaboration, “We Were Once a Fairytale,” first cropped up on blogs a few weeks back, I was curious but always too busy to watch the ten-minute clip. Then a friend insisted I check it out, proclaiming it proof that Kanye “really is the voice of this generation.”

So I checked it out. And . . . wow. Just wow. Stop what you’re doing and watch it. Unless you’re at work/in class, because it’s a little bit grody.

Thriller this ain’t, but it’s something equally valuable. It’s not a pop star reinventing himself, so much as admitting his foibles. We all thought Kanye was too egotistical to realize he seems like a total prick, right? But no! He basically just executed the best take-down of his own public image that anyone could ever have imagined.  He even posted this video on his own blog (prematurely, in fact, and the video disappeared from the internet shortly thereafter–this YouTube clip may not last long).

Though this odd little number comes right on the heels of Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are,” I think “Fairytale” is more akin to his earlier feature “Being John Malkovich,” a visually stimulating exploration of celebrity identity. Now all that remains is for Charlie Kaufman to collaborate with Lady Gaga, and we’ll be living in a perfect world.

Link source: YouTube