Not everyone is off the Kanye West bandwagon; in fact, Nick Cave has gone as far as to describe him as “our greatest artist.” The surprising comments were made by the goth rock icon in a recent posting to his Red Hands Files, as Stereogum points out.
In response to a fan asking his thoughts on Kanye, Cave explained the connection between chaos and art, and how the Chicago rapper’s output and behavior — however outlandish or left-field they might seem — is a living, breathing example of that complex parallel.
“Making art is a form of madness — we slip deep within our own singular vision and become lost to it,” he answered. “There is no musician on Earth that is as committed to their own derangement as Kanye, and in this respect, at this point in time, he is our greatest artist.”
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Cave himself is no stranger to the madness brought on by pain and deep emotional turmoil, as most of his catalog proves. He’s also never been one to shy away from more contrarian views, such as the ones he made about “woke culture” last October. The Ghosteen musician condemned “woke culture” for being “self-righteous” and a hindrance to “contrary systems of thought.”
“Living in a state of enquiry, neutrality and uncertainty, beyond dogma and grand conviction, is good for the business of songwriting, and for my life in general,” Cave wrote in his Red Hands File newsletter at the time. “This is the reason I tend to become uncomfortable around all ideologies that brand themselves as ‘the truth’ or ‘the way.’”
Cave has a series of 2020 tour dates in the coming months, and you can catch him live by purchasing concert tickets here. He’s also expected to release an illustrated autobiography dubbed Stranger Than Kindness in the spring.
