Pop Conspiracy Theory: Kanye’s Cousin And/Or Nike Leaked The “Black Skinhead” Remix
Earlier today (January 21), a rough but seemingly legit version of Kanye West‘s long-awaited “Black Skinhead” remix featuring Miley Cyrus and Travi$ Scott surfaced online. Almost immediately, rap heads who’ve been following West’s recent string of releases half-joked about who the leaker was.
Kanye's cousin definitely just clapped back by releasing the Miley remix.
— Tom Breihan (@tombreihan) January 21, 2016
Kanye's cousin out here like "keep my name out your mouth or I *will* drop that Taylor Swift collab"
— Tom Breihan (@tombreihan) January 21, 2016
I bet Kanye's cousin released that Black Skinhead Remix straight from the Trash Bin.
— Stop. Record. Play. (@ChairmanFrog) January 21, 2016
This makes so much sense. More sense than anything else about Kanye’s music for the last year or so. On “Real Friends,” West calls out an unnamed cousin who stole his laptop and held it for a $250,000 ransom. In the song, West claims the sensitive material on it was sex-related, but you have to assume there was some music on there as well. Then on follow-up “No More Parties In L.A.,” West finishes by calling out that same cousin: “And as far as real friends, tell my cousins I love ’em / Even the one that stole the laptop, you dirty motherfucker.”
Kanye x Miley:: Hear the unlikely duo on Ye's "Black Skinhead" remix
So was this leak an act of vengeance from cuz after he got blasted twice in two weeks? Could be. Or maybe Kanye planned for the “Black Skinhead” remix to be released all along as part of his pseudo GOOD Friday 2.0 campaign tomorrow but someone jumped the gun. But human error is boring, so let’s go even further down the conspiracy rabbit hole. Maybe GOOD Music got hacked. And who would have the power to hack? This guys knows:
https://twitter.com/BosNaud/status/690191624823910400
Nike! Corporate espionage! Some Michael Clayton shit! Ye’s cousin caught a lot of heat, but nobody has been targeted by Kanye on these new songs more than Nike — “FACTS” was one big Nike diss. And of course this goes back years, when Ye used to call out the brand during his infamous Yeezus tour rants and interviews. So maybe Nike, that all-powerful multinational behemoth, was sick of the PR tsunami that is Kanye West, and used its considerable resources to lift the track out from under him. Perhaps they even worked in cahoots with the cousin, since no conspiracy theory is complete without parties working “in cahoots.”
Or maybe it was a disgruntled David Bowie fan who caught wind of that rumored tribute album Kanye was planning (which was never actually happening).
Follow the money (that’s what you say when tracking a conspiracy) and let us know your theories in the comments.
