Men’s living spaces tend to get a bad rap. To Kanye’s credit, he does appear to have a bed frame underneath the single mattress he is currently, apparently, sleeping on. The artist sold out an exclusive listening event for his new album DONDA last week at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, a 2-million-square-foot building it seems he has not left since.
Ye’s 10th studio album is proving trickier to sign off on than anticipated, with its release pushed several times from its initial date in 2020, with the most recent delay coming last Friday 23 July (the album is now expected to drop 6 August). A few days after TMZ reported that the rapper has “made the stadium a home until he finishes his album” — a home that included “a studio space, living quarters and even […] a chef” — Kanye posted picture evidence to his Instagram, revealing the small grey and white locker room he currently resides in.
But having left the cold, weird museum he shared with his now-ex-wife Kim Kardashian (you know, the stark, white-walled, white-floored marble monstrosity that looked to some like a true-life manifestation of the mental hell as seen in Jordan Peele’s Get Out, and referred to as “the sunken place” by Kanye himself) things may just be looking up for him. At least there’s a carpet in this one.
There is an argument to be made that Kanye is in fact currently living his best life, or at least as good a life as one can have in a post-Covid, mid-climate crisis, Jeff-Bezos-supremacy era. Some may say that this 44-year-old man has regressed, and that he is now living in a college dorm room of sorts. To them I would say, true, there is a huge finals season vibe to this entire affair. Crucially though, Ye does appear to have a fair amount of privacy in this space, whereas most student accommodations are rife with, well, students. Not to mention they’re often plotted across spaces that are quite a bit smaller than 2-million-square-feet.
To those asking why Kanye’s new bedroom resembles a Norweigan jail cell (Norway’s carceral solutions are more humane than most but abolition is the only way forward!), perhaps Kanye is dipping a toe into a more ascetic, Scandi lifestyle. I mean, peep the capsule wardrobe he has laid out on his floor!
The man is clearly working hard and feeling at one with his craft, and maybe it’s admirable that he’s open to sharing decidedly un-IG worthy aspects of his life. You can appreciate the #authenticity, or maybe just feel grateful to own bedsheets. No but really, where is his duvet cover?