Look out Biden and Trump, a new challenger has entered the 2020 presidential race!

BY JANIECE CAMPBELL

The words “’Fore the day I die, I’mma touch the sky” were more of a prophesy than song lyrics.

As if 2020 couldn’t get any wilder, hip-hop artist Kanye West has announced his presidential bid.

On the night of America’s Independence Day, Kanye West made the announcement via Twitter. “We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States! #2020VISION,” he says.

As the tweet instantly went viral, entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, replied with encouragement, stating “You have my full support!” With over 300,000 retweets thus far, it didn’t take long before ‘#Kanye2020’ and ‘First Lady’ became trending topics on Twitter. His wife, Kim Kardashian-West retweeted the message, supporting her husband by patriotically adding an American flag emoji.

While the tweet itself seems to have come out of nowhere, this is not the first time that he’s broadcasted his White House aspirations. In 2015, during his acceptance speech for the VMA Video Vanguard Award, an intoxicated Kanye West surprised viewers by exclaiming “I have decided in 2020 to run for president!”

In November 2019, West spoke again about his political ambitions at the Fast Company Innovation Festival.

“When I run for President in 2024,” he said before the audience began laughing. “What y’all laughing at? We would create so many jobs! I’m not going to run; I’m going to walk. When you see headlines saying Kanye’s crazy — one in three African Americans are in jail and all the celebrities are in jail also because they can’t say nothing, they got no opinion, they’re so scared!”

The rapper has never tried to hide his political views as he has previously been a vocal supporter of President Trump. During a visit to the Oval Office back in 2018, West sported a red ‘Make America Great Again’ cap, claiming that wearing the hat made him feel like superhero. In a 2020 interview with GQ, he implied that he plans to vote for the businessman in the next election.

“Black people are controlled by emotions through the media. We emotionally connect to someone of our colour on TV and feel that this person is speaking for us. I will not be told who I’m gonna vote on because of my colour. I’m definitely voting this time, and we know who I’m voting on. And I’m not going to be told by the people around me and the people that have their agenda that my career is going to be over. Because, guess what? I’m still here!”

U.S. Elections are less than four months away, and it’s not yet known if West has filed any required official paperwork to appear on state election ballots. It’s hard to tell from a singular tweet whether he is actually serious about running for president, but his past political discourse proves his passion for prison reform and an environmentally sustainable America.