Right now, we should be talking about all of the great things Kanye West has going for him in terms of music. He just tore through a Coachella live set on Sunday night that made us want to attend every ‘Ye concert from now until 2050. He’s apparently putting the finishing touches on his collaborative album, Watch The Throne, alongside Jay-Z. His last album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, is still making waves on the Internet (where is the “All of the Lights (Remix),” fam!). And just about everything Kanye touches right now turns to gold…or, better yet, platinum.

So, love him or hate him, we should be celebrating Kanye West, the consummate musician, right now. But all anyone has wanted to talk about this week is the new Nike Air Yeezy 2—the second collaboration between Kanye and the house that Michael Jordan helped build. There were shots of him rocking them at Coachella. Then shots of the front of them. Then shots of the back of them. Then reports about which sneakers they borrow influences from. Then news about how much they’ll cost, when you’ll be able to get them, how many will be released, and…well, basically, there’s been a whole lot of speculation over the sneakers—and Kanye’s recent musical wins have taken something of a backseat to it all.

And it all seems a little bit weird to me. Not because I don’t understand the excitement and fervor surrounding the Yeezys. I get it. They’re exclusive sneakers that sneakerheads all over the world will go absolutely nutso for once they hit stores in extremely limited quantities. I myself won’t be waiting in line for six weeks to try and score a pair—but I do recognize there are some people out there who are going to be ready and willing to camp out in the middle of rain, snow, sleet, hail, and whatever else Mother Nature can throw at them for the chance to cover their feet in the Yeezys.

However, it seems like Kanye would be the first guy in the world who would criticize the media for overlooking his music in favor of something else about his life. I’m sure he wouldn’t want the media overlooking his Coachella performance and instead focusing on the rumored altercation that might have—but probably didn’t!—occur between him and Wiz Khalifa at the event. I’m sure he wouldn’t want people overlooking news on Watch The Throne by asking him questions about his rumored recent fling with model Kate Upton instead. I’m sure he wouldn’t want his music to play second fiddle to anything or anyone else in his life. Yet, that’s exactly the situation he created when he decided to start dropping details about the Yeezys at the same time he was creating an important moment in his hip-hop career.

Like I said, I get the excitement about the Yeezys. I just don’t understand why Kanye would decide to leak so many details about them now, when it seems like he has tons of music-based stuff to share with the world. He could have dropped the details last month in a blog post and generated the same kind of buzz that he’s generating this week. But instead, he chose to overshadow everything else he’s got going on by doing it this week.

It doesn’t make sense to me. Then again, when has anything ‘Ye does ever made sense when he first started doing it? Let’s hope he’s got a plan for all the mayhem he’s started this week. Because I’d hate to see the guy get short-changed for putting on one hell of a performance at Coachella and doing a million and one other cool things in the world of music right now as a result of a pair of sneakers that only a select few will ever get a chance to get their hands on.

Photo Credits: Nice Kicks

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