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 The music video for "Famous," which premiered on E! News,
featured low-resolution footage depicting 12 celebrities
sleeping next to each other with West situated in the middle,
nestled between Swift and his wife, reality star Kim Kardashian.
Other celebrities include former U.S. President George W. Bush,
Vogue editor Anna Wintour, rapper Chris Brown, R&B singer Ray J,
transgender reality star Caitlyn Jenner, model Amber Rose and
singer Rihanna, who provided vocals for the song.
E! blurred out depictions of breasts and genitals. It is not
known if the portrayals are paintings or wax statues, but in
some cases it appears to be the actual celebrity posing.
The video ends by pausing on the sleeping faces of Swift,
Rihanna and Brown over the audio of heavy breathing.
Representatives for West, Kardashian, Jenner, Trump and Cosby
declined to comment on the video. Representatives for the other
celebrities did not immediately return requests for comment.
E! News host Jason Kennedy said "Kanye wants everyone to know
this is not a video. This is an art visual."
The imagery for "Famous" is inspired by artist Vincent
Desiderio's 2008 painting "Sleep," which featured people in
various states of undress sleeping next to each other.
Desiderio called West's video "a tableau that was disturbingly
familiar, rapturously beautiful and frighteningly uncanny," in
an essay published Monday for W Magazine.
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West, known for often embarking on rambling 'tweetstorms' on social
media, held the first screening of the "Famous" video in Los Angeles
late on Friday.
The video quickly became a trending topic online over the weekend
especially due to West's complicated history with Swift.
The rapper famously interrupted Swift's acceptance speech at the
2009 MTV Video Music Awards and snatched her microphone award out of
her hand. The duo buried the hatchet at last year's MTV Video Music
awards, but the truce did not last long.
The two fell out again in February after West's song "Famous," off
his latest album "The Life of Pablo," featured the lyric "I feel
like me and Taylor might still have sex, I made that bitch famous."
West claimed Swift had approved the lyric, but the pop singer's
representative said Swift was never aware of the lyric and had
cautioned the rapper about the "strong misogynistic message" in the
song.
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Mary Milliken)
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