David Bowie and Kanye West - Great Rock Conspiracies - Rolling Stone

Is Kanye West the "Starman" that David Bowie sang in 1972? Spoiler: it's unlikely

No one will argue with Kanye West for renaming himself Yeezus in 2013, but according to some staunch conspiracy theorists, his fate as a genius and controversial musician had been in the cards for a while now. Probably around 1972, five years before he was even born.

The year David Bowie released his eminent fifth album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, the famous rcok-opera that served as a springboard for the character of Ziggy Stardust, one of Bowie's many alter egos, with his fiery red hair and its mysterious origins. On a Blogspot spotted in 2007, and claiming to be "the official portal for the Kanye West/David Bowie theory," a fan dwells on the alleged way the two artists are inextricably linked, and in a very strange way. – it all started on June 6, 1972, when Ziggy Stardust was released.

Here's how we got here: on the album cover, you can see Bowie taking a break in a dark London street, with cardboard boxes by his side, all on concrete freshly moistened by the rain. Where does the eye naturally go, if we put aside the singer's very blond hair? To a lighted sign, standing just above his head, that reads “K. West. “Coincidence?

But the theory goes a little further than a simple inscription, and looks at the meaning of the album's intro track: Five Years. The lyrics depict a world on the verge of extinction, which would only be five years old – unless a certain “Starman” arrives on Earth and saves humanity.

In a 1974 interview with Rolling Stone, Bowie explained how his alter ego would eventually leave Earth, not without some sense of prophecy: will make it visible,” he said.

And indeed, when the popstar left us on January 10, 2016, Kanye West was one of the first to pay tribute to him, tweeting just an hour after the official announcement appeared on the artist's Facebook page: "David Bowie was one of my greatest sources of inspiration, he was so brave, so creative, a real source of magic for a lifetime. »

That's when a Reddit user revived the theory, adding a few key takeaways, like the fact that Bowie's latest album, Blackstar, explicitly confirmed West as the worthy heir. Because first, the rapper is literally a "black star" (we don't insult the translation), and second, the eponymous track contains lyrics with rather strange revelations.

"Something happened the day he died," the lyrics go. “Her spirit rose and stepped aside/Someone else took her place and bravely cried/'I'm a blackstar, I'm a blackstar!' »

But a theory is never complete without several other small elements that come to corroborate it. The album's third track, recorded when he had been secretly ill with cancer for 18 months, is called Lazarus, a reference to the character of the same name in the Bible. In the holy book, Lazarus falls ill and dies. He is buried, but Jesus brings him back to life through prayer.

At this point, it's important to remember that the third track from West's 2013 album, Yeezus, is titled I am a God — and the rapper posed with a crown of thorns for a cover. by Rolling Stone dated 2006. Is it possible to be more explicit about the Jesus-West parallel?

Oh, we almost forgot. Three days before Bowie's death in January 2016, Sia unveiled her track Reaper – which, coincidentally, was co-written and co-produced by the newest incarnation of Bowie's creative mind: Kanye West.

The original article and its video on Rolling Stone US