He’s playing by the Trump rulebook, in an attention economy, he who says the most outrageous things wins.

That’s right, the media covers your every move and everybody knows what you do and despite so many despising you, others are drawn to you, and you don’t need many acolytes to win in this country of 300+ million, never mind the rest of the world.

So he’ll get us to listen to his music. We want to know what’s going on, we want to watch the train-wreck, and Kanye’s laughing all the way to the bank.

But what bugs me most is the opioid addiction as a result of liposuction, proving that Kanye didn’t change the Kardashians, but vice versa, he was sucked into their vision, which is as false as they come. When image is everything, you’ve lost the plot, aging is inevitable, and the only major figure who has figured this out is Bob Dylan, who continues to tour with his ragged voice, reinterpreting his material, confounding us with his choices, whether they be covers or whiskeys.

Then again, it’s all about money, Dylan likes it and Kanye can’t stop complaining he doesn’t have enough, while he alienates his allies and proclaims he’s the world’s greatest, didn’t Muhammad Ali already do that act?

And to tell you the truth, I believe some of this nonsense is calculated, but a lot of it is evidence of mental illness. Meanwhile, his mother dies as a result of plastic surgery and he gets it? Isn’t that like a heroin addict believing if dope killed someone else it can’t kill him? Both are unnecessary, if unequal, what kind of lesson are we teaching our youth?

Then again, Kanye is a black icon for both getting this much attention and living the life of a rich person, buying land, increasing his empire, that appeals to the oppressed. But I do believe there are better messages to send.

Not that Kanye is truly concerned with those. Not that I can truly understand the African-American experience. But I can see that Kanye is playing everybody from TMZ to the “New York Times.” They’re taking what he’s saying seriously, they’re repeating it, in a world where most people cannot name the number one song, never mind sing it, Kanye is the biggest star of the week, maybe even the month!

Maybe a sad reflection on today’s music business, but there’s truth here, the biz thinks so SMALL! Believing its own data. That if a track is number one it makes a difference and everybody cares. ALMOST NO ONE CARES! HOW DO YOU RISE ABOVE?

Kanye figured it out.

P.S. As for firing his handlers, Scooter and Paterno, this is a bad move all around. Nobody’s an expert in everything, everybody needs help, everybody needs a team, I don’t know what coach Kris J. and her daughters are telling Yeezus, but the more he rants, the more he appears to need help. Then again, this is a world where we love to see our heroes spiral into the abyss, from Elvis to Avicii. We like the movie too much to stop them. We don’t want to help. Or maybe Kanye’s the victim of the Trump administration he is lauding, it’s everybody for themselves baby, compassion is history, if you want to flame out, that’s fine. Or is it?