Wal-Mart Denies Ban on Kanye West “Fantasy” Cover

By Lora Neng
WWW.STREETGANGS.COM STAFF WRITER
October 22, 2010

Before Walmart issued any statement regarding an intention to ban Kanye West’s new album, the artist tweeted, “In all honesty…I really don’t be thinking about Walmart when I make my music or album covers #kanyeshrug!” Rumors of a ban targeted at the chain store circulated when the Los Angeles Times speculated about “whether or not mass-market retailers such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart would carry an album featuring venomous nudes.”

The artwork for Kanye’s new album, titled My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, was still being mulled over with a few alternates, but the design in question is a painting of a black-skinned man being mounted by a nude winged female with polka-dot tail while the man reclines holding a dark green bottle. This graphic prompted both offense at censorship and doubts about the rapper’s aesthetic taste in the blogosphere.

In his characteristic attentiveness to the media, Kanye shot out, “Banned in the USA!!! They don’t want me chilling on the couch with my phoenix! In the 70s album covers had actual nudity.”

This then prompted a Walmart spokesperson to address the rising concerns. “We’re excited about Kanye West’s new album and we look forward to carrying it in our stores on November 22nd.” Further clarification followed in the statement provided to EW. “As always, it’s our standard practice to carry the edited parental advisory version. We did not reject the cover artwork and it was never presented to us to view.”

Kanye insisted, “I wanna sell albums but not at the expense of my true creativity.”