Can Critics Separate the Art from the Artist?

Ye (Kanye West) performing at the Museum of Modern Art in 2011. Photo via via Wikimedia Commons

Anthony Fantano is one of the most respected voices in music criticism. Many of his opinions see a mix of responses, with some of his most controversial takes centering around Ye (Kanye West).

Fantano has previously rated Ye’s work very highly and other times rated it in ways that have seen immense criticism thrown his way, like his review of the 2010 album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” which he gave a six out of ten to the dismay of many.

In that November 2010 review, Fantano said that before reviewing the record, he thought about explaining Ye’s “gaffs” to contextualize the time the record was released, but to stress focusing on the music and to “leave your hate at the door.” However, Fantano says this approach became more challenging considering how Ye “loves to rap about himself” by putting his strengths and weaknesses on display, making context difficult to ignore. 

Thirteen years later, he takes a similar approach to Ye’s latest record, “Vultures 1,” made in collaboration with Ty Dolla Sign, which Fantano deemed unreviewable. The difference here is the context to MBDTF was Ye interrupting Taylor Swift at the VMA’s, and the context here is Ye’s rampant anti-semitism. 

Fantano released his review of “Vultures 1” on Feb. 12 on his TheNeedleDrop YouTube channel, which sits at 1.9 million views as of March 2, which is his most viewed video of the year thus far. He holds no punches, saying, “This is completely unreviewable trash,” to open the video. He explains his inability to separate Ye as a person from “Vultures 1,” citing several anti-semitic and misogynistic remarks in the record along with the real-life consequences of Ye’s actions, namely protestors hanging signs over a Los Angeles, California, freeway supporting Ye’s antisemitism.

This review by Fantano has reignited the issue of separating the art from the artist regarding musicians and creatives. This also calls into question what the responsibility of a music reviewer is, whether it is to rate the music purely or to consider the person behind the art.

Fantano himself says in his video about “Vultures 1” that he operates in a specific ethos as a music reviewer. He explains in his video review that he wants to bring the viewers “pause and cause [for] them to think about why it is they do or do not like the piece of music,” in addition to getting people excited about the music he’s platforming to his millions of followers. For this record, Fantano feels he can’t separate Ye from the art he makes when Ye infuses so much of who he is into the music. 

This record has also led other music reviewers online to come to a similar conclusion as Fantano. Bradley Lehmann, a music critic and streamer who is known as “Brad Taste in Music” online with over 300 thousand subscribers on YouTube, expressed a similar opinion to Fantano in his review of the new Ye record. Bradley reviews this record based on his opinion that even outside of Ye’s descent into alt-right politics, the music itself sounds like “garbage” with a host of issues he feels make the record sonically poor. He explains, “He’s an antisemite, which is part of it, but genuinely because people are willing to forgive that and separate the art from the artist to love this album. The album sucks like it's trash.” 

Although Fantano and Lehmann generally agree in the realm of separating the art from the artist, this opinion isn’t as widely held with Fantano receiving the majority of the kickback.

Acheeto is a YouTube commentator who focuses on different cultural phenomena. Acheeto released a response video to Fantano’s “Vultures 1” review, where he critiques the points made. The YouTuber explains that Fantano, as a music reviewer, should be sticking to the music. “When your job is to review music on YouTube you need to just review the music. Do not do a political analysis of the things that he's saying… just talk about the music,” said Acheeto to open his commentary. 

The counter Acheeto presents here is not uncommon in the discourse around separating the art from the artist. A quick Google search yields hundreds of editorials posting about the ethics of separating the art from the artist or if it can be done at all. For music critics, this debate has always been around whether it is Ye in rap and hip-hop, Morrissey in alternative music, or Michael Jackson in pop. It is a phenomenon in art of all kinds that creates more questions than answers.