While Kanye West was playing court jester in the Oval Office last Thursday, bragging about having an IQ in the 98th percentile and revealing that wearing a Make America Great Again cap made him “feel like Superman,” I interviewed Sylvie Simmons, author of “I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen,” about her favorite subject’s recent act: trolling the Trump-loving rapper from beyond the grave.
The “Suzanne” and “Hallelujah” songwriter died on Nov. 7, 2016, but his new book, “The Flame: Poems Notebooks Lyrics Drawings,” debuted last week, powered by a poem that roasts the rapper—”Kanye West Is Not Picasso.”
The 21-line poem begins with this throw-down from Cohen:
Kanye West is not Picasso
I am Picasso
Kanye West is not Edison
I am Edison
“This isn’t really a high-brow dis,” Simmons said. “This is, you know, sleeves-up, ‘get in the ring, motherfucker.’ He’s taking Kanye on. It’s rap-talk, in a way, but done Leonard Cohen style.”
Simmons explains that Cohen, who revered Spanish artists of all stripes, was incensed by this headline-generating Kanye quote,: "My goal, if I was going to do art, fine art, would have been to become Picasso or greater."
She also reveals that Cohen “feared that Trump would win. He actually, deep inside, thought that would be a big possibility. And he left us just two days before Trump was elected and the whole world was turned upside down.”
You can read more about the poem and Cohen right here.