Kanye West was busy getting married over the weekend in Italy, but one person in Chicago has a new potential title for the rapper, one a bit more powerful than simply “husband.” It’s …”mayor.”
Artist and writer Ben Shepherd launched kanye4mayor.org over the weekend, writing that “Chicago is headed in the wrong direction and Mayor West could lead a movement to make it the best city in the world.”
Mayor Yeezus has a nice ring to it.
The website lists several points behind the crusade, including some thoughts from the creator.
“He is FINE being the only human being who endorses this because insofar as (1) he lives in Chicago some of the time, (2) there has to be a mayor of said entity, (3) better it be Kanye West than Rahm Emmanuel,” the site reports. “This is (A) because Chicago under the West administration would be a happier one for most humans who live in it (this is conventionally the “goal of politics”) and (B) because the arguments would be realer, more interesting, and more political than they are now.”
Can’t argue with all that.
In an open letter to Kanye, the site writes:
Here’s an idea for how to write some history.
Right now your home city is ruled over by a Mayor whose allegiances are not with the majority of Chicagoans.
I want to invite you to run for mayor of Chicago in 2015 and make it the best city in the world. Doing this would require fixing some big problems.
There are four main ones: the schools are awful, the public transportation system is subpar, it isn’t a democracy, there are too many shootings.
The letter goes on to discuss improving the school system and improving safety measures for Windy City residents. It does not get into how the Blackhawks could beat the Kings in the 2014 NHL Playoffs or how to fix the Cubs.
“Not to put any pressure on you but you are the only person in the world who could make this happen,” the site pleads to ‘Ye. “There isn’t anyone else who (1) is wealthy and famous enough (2) is from Chicago, and (3) may actually understand the problems with the city.
It continues: “‘Mayor’ can mean many different things. Right now it means a servant of a very narrow elite who exerts massive public relations energy to disguise this fact. Under your administration it would mean a combination of role model, consultant, and design chief. It would probably take 8 years to get all this work done but just think what would be possible after.”
Kanye has yet to reacted to the website (we know, he’s busy), so stay tuned.
[h/t Under The Gun]