If I had a dollar for every time Kanye West posted an outrageous tweet, I'd be making major progress toward funding that $53 million in debt the rapper asked Mark Zuckerberg to help repay. (Those Zuckerberg tweets totally fall in the outrageous category, BTW.) But his posts aren't all rants about Taylor Swift or commentary on the media. Instead, Ye's latest tweet is more on the sentimental side. Coinciding with her birthday on July 12, West posted a tribute to his late mother Donda West, and I must say, it's an emotional one. He wrote,
NORI ASKED IF THE AIRPLANE COULD TAKE HER TO HEAVEN TO SEE YOU FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY, I LOVE YOU MOM
He also posted an old photo of them together. He may not be smiling with teeth, but you can still tell he's grinning alongside his mother. The fact that North West asked about Donda is both touching and heartbreaking. She'll never get to meet her grandma, but it's clear her memory lives on through West. Nori's question about taking the plane to heaven shows her childhood innocence, but the fact that she asked in the first place shows she's old enough to grasp what an important person Donda was in her dad's life. That in itself is special, and it's enough to make an overemotional person like myself feel some majors feels.
People tend to give West a hard time for his public persona, so it can be easy to forget he's still a human being with feelings and emotions like the rest of us. Just because he comes across as a tough guy, that doesn't mean he's not still grieving the loss of his mother; that kind of pain doesn't just disappear. Donda tragically passed away in 2007 from heart disease a day after having plastic surgery.
This isn't the first time he honored her memory. Backstage at his Yeezy Season 3 show, West wore a t-shirt with his mom's picture graffitied on the front, and his wife Kim Kardashian's late father, Robert Kardashian, on the back. The shirt read: "In loving memory." It was a special way to memorialize the loved ones he would've wanted by his side on such a big day. He also told the crowd at Madison Square Garden that day that he had created a video game about his mom going through heaven's gates, which you can see a preview of below.
West's birthday tribute not only shows a different side to the rapper, but helps keep his mom's memory alive. It's all the more beautiful that he shares her memory with North. Although some are quick to judge him, it's worth remembering he's a person, just like everybody else.
