A celebrity persona can vault past public shame to critical acclaim

Evidence

The resulting comeback album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, was an incontrovertible triumph. Released on November 22, 2010, it debuted at number one on the Billboard charts and received universal acclaim, including a perfect 10.0 from Pitchfork. Critics hailed it not only as his best work, but as one of the decade’s defining albums. Complex lauded Nicki Minaj’s guest verse on “Monster” as the best rap of 2008–2013. Far from issuing remorseful apologies, Kanye leaned into his villainous image, toasting the world’s “douchebags” and “scumbags” with glee. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 364

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the death-of-the-sellout mechanism: the audience rewarded villainy rather than punishing it, which bears on whether cultural icons function as status markers. — connects to: Pop stardom now rewards reflexive ironic disavowal rather than sincerity — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1200; Classic celebrity discourse centers on the gap between image and the real person — Theresa M. Senft, Camgirls: Celebrity and Community in…, 196