Even though Kanye’s definitely part of the 1%, it’s good to see him at Occupy Wall Street, because class warfare — defined quite sensibly as the rich waging war on the poor — is a major theme of Kanye’s work.

I was quick to grab a photo from a website and slap some Cooper Std on it, so I got a lot of notes and such. But I’ve been a writer-abouter of Kanye West for a bit. Here are some of the things I’ve written.

• An extremely shambolic essay on Watch The Throne
• A brief essay on Kanye’s genius
• A loose exegesis of the film Runaway
• A selection of pieces I wrote on Kanye for Fuse.tv
• A little valedictory thing on MBDTF’s 10.0

As well, in conclusion, we should probably think about one more thing: Kanye appeared at this amazing protest of excess wearing gold chains and a gold grille. That’s some very ‘Kanye’ stuff right there. While it’s not not kind of repugnant, it’s also a part of his solipsistic world of opulence-as-penance, and what makes him an artist is what he does with his experience. Hopefully he’ll work this movement — which we all know he’s aware of, now — into his music. And hopefully he’ll never stop questioning society’s assumptions, which let him, a black man, be able to walk around in gold chains while there are millions of jobless people — a disproportionate amount of whom are black men. I’m of the mind that Kanye is an artist of the people, but I can see why people might think otherwise. As with all things, an honest engagement with the material is probably the best way to settle it. Honest engagement is something I’ve always tried to do, and I think Kanye has, as well. (#humblebrag, I’m just like Kanye.)