It seems Kanye West may have “misunderestimated” George W. Bush.
The surreal denouement to West’s new music video for “Famous,” which premiered via a sold out event at The Forum in Los Angeles on Friday (and simultaneously livestreamed on Tidal), features a home video camera snaking across several bodies in close-up. They are, from left to right: George W. Bush, Anna Wintour, Donald Trump, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Ray J, Amber Rose, Caitlyn Jenner, and Bill Cosby. The camera then moves overhead, revealing that all of the celebrities are lying in bed naked together, presumably in a state of post-coital tristesse. The image mimics the 2008 painting “Sleep” by Vincent Desiderio.
While Taylor Swift is reportedly feeling “livid and betrayed” (though when is she not) over her appearance in the video—one where all the women are topless, while the men are covered in all the right places—a representative for Dubya has come out with a more nuanced response.
“In case there was any doubt… that is not President Bush,” a rep for the 43rd POTUS told TMZ. “He is in much better shape.” And hey, it's probably better than that time Game of Thrones put Dubya's head on a spike.
In an interview with Vanity Fair prior to the video’s release, West commented on the appearance of Dubya in the video, saying, “Maybe in some alternative universe me and George Bush could have been friends. I could have been his O.J. Simpson black friend on the golf course.” He later added that the appearance of any celebs, including accused serial rapist Cosby—who he once said is “INNOCENT” on Twitter, is “not in support or anti any of [the people in the video]. It’s a comment on fame.”
And on Saturday afternoon, West foolishly tweeted (and then deleted) that he’s welcoming the lawsuits he’s bound to receive:
West’s “Famous” has fast become the most notorious track off his seventh studio album The Life of Pablo. On it, he proclaims of Swift “I made that bitch famous”—referring to the sympathy she received after a Henny-infused Yeezy stormed the MTV Video Music Awards’ stage, snatched the mic during her Video of the Year acceptance speech, and said, “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!” Swift claimed that she did not clear all the lyrical content of the song and cautioned West against its “strong misogynistic message,” then blasted West during her acceptance speech at the Grammys, cautioning the youth of America against people who “try to undercut your success, or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.” West, for his part, claims that Swift is a “fake-ass” and that he not only cleared the lyrics with Swift beforehand, but that he has the phone call in question on video—the existence of which, according to his wife Kim, prompted a cease and desist from the litigious Swift’s team of attorneys, who once even targeted her own fans selling Swift-related homemade merchandise on Etsy.
As for West’s relationship with Dubya, well, they have a bit of history, too. It began in earnest on September 2, 2005, during the NBC charity special A Concert for Hurricane Relief. There, during the live telethon for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, West railed against the media for the way they negatively portrayed the black victims of the tragedy, before aiming his are at the POTUS: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
It was West’s Ali moment—and an eye-opening one for a generation of young Americans who hadn’t seen a rapper of West’s stature take such an impassioned political stand. Bush later called it an “all-time low” in his presidency which, as I’ve written, “ultimately said more about him than West: that being insulted over his handling of Hurricane Katrina was worse than the people’s misery, or the devastation caused by the War in Iraq, or the millions of lives ruined by torpedoing the economy.” The George W. Bush of West’s music video “Famous” appears to be a wax figure of some kind, similar to those you’d find at Madame Tussaud’s. And you know, Kanye, there’s an old saying in Tennessee—I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, “Fool me once, shame on… shame on you. Fool me… you can’t get fooled again.”