Tis the season, right? It’s right about now that we’re supposed to be putting our petty beefs and disagreements aside and coming together to love the hell out of each other, yeah? Well let’s do that.

We’ve been running these “Don’t Hate” articles for awhile now and the subject matter has been, with one notable exception, pretty lighthearted. But the traditional holiday good tidings have us feeling like we need to kick things up a notch. So, we’ve decided to focus our laser-like sense of empathy and understanding towards one of the biggest pop culture villains of  all-time. OF ALL TIME!

Ladies and gentlemen, here are five reasons why it’s okay to like Kanye West.

The Music

Let’s get the most obvious reason why you should love Kanye West out of the way to start things off. When it comes to the music, Kanye West is beyond reproach. There’s a reason he sells a shit ton of records and the songs with his name in the producer credits on your favorite rap and R&B albums stand out a little bit more than the others. It’s not because he’s got great tits. It’s because he’s damn great at his job.

It’s one thing if you dismiss Kanye West’s music because you’re not a rap fan. We can get behind that. Every genre isn’t for everybody. We wouldn’t have genres if that was the case. But if you’ve purchased a hip-hop, rap, R&B, pop or whatever other CD in the past decade and don’t recognize that, when it comes to the music, Kanye West operates on a level most people can only hope to…well, you’re just lying to yourself.

We could probably dedicate this entire article just to the reasons why you should like the man’s music. But this isn’t a music site. Plenty of others before us have sung the praises of Kanye West’s work in print and on the internet. Go look it up. As for us, let’s talk about something a little more provocative…

He Kind of Had a Point About the Taylor Swift Thing

Wait! Before you toss a brick through our window, please understand, we’re not saying that running up on stage and snatching the microphone away from Taylor Swift was a good idea. That was some dumbassery right there. But, if you remember what the reason for his protest was, he actually brought up a pretty valid point.

Award shows aren’t supposed to be a level playing field. If someone dominates, they just win everything. It happens all the time. Some movie or actor or musician will walk home from a LEGITIMATE awards show with an armload of trophies because they just killed shit that year.

But MTV doesn’t work that way. Case in point…Taylor Swift. How do you justify giving her “Female Video of the Year” but then giving Beyoncé the highly coveted “Video of the Year” award? Do the math, unless Beyoncé is a dude, that shit doesn’t compute.

Was it immature of Kanye West to storm the stage and make a spectacle of himself? Sure, but that guy from Rage Against the Machine did pretty much the same thing and we’re not losing sleep over that guy, are we? And don’t even get us started on Fiona Apple.

And this brings us to the next point…

He Owns Up When He’s Wrong

Everyone on the planet knew Kanye West fucked up with that Taylor Swift affair. But nobody knew it more than him. It takes a big person to own up to being wrong, and Kanye absolutely did. Not only did he apologize, he turned the incident into one of his greatest songs ever (see above video). You can’t ask for much more than that. It’s a lot more than you get from most celebs or politicians.

He’s Who We Think We Are

That’s “we” meaning all of us. You, me and everyone else reading this loves to believe that we keep it way too real. If something’s on our mind, we’re going to let that shit out! Damn the consequences! But we all know that’s not the case, don’t we? We bite our tongues. We get along. Sure, we have our moments when we maybe slip a snide remark aimed at a co-worker into a PowerPoint presentation or something, but at the end of the day, we usually just pussy out. Now let your mind wander back to the above video.

Watching it now, it’s pretty obvious that something’s brewing in our guy’s head. Can you imagine the internal buildup to a moment like that? He’s clearly upset. He wants to say something…but should he? Would you? If you asked your closest friends and associates if you should go on national television and tell the world that the President of the United States doesn’t care about black people, how many would say it’s a good idea? None. Do you think HE thought it was a good idea? Of course not. But sticking to the script wasn’t an option. A lot of people probably wish they spoke up about what went down in New Orleans. But Kanye West did it. He’s about as honest as a person can get. It’s hard to hate that.

And that’s why…

We Need Him

Not only do we need Kanye West around, we need to stop asking him to tone it down. Fuck that. Talk shit, be abrasive, make people angry. In short, be a damn rock star. We don’t have many left, you know? Do we really want to live in a world where “shut up and sing” is the order of the day? Hell no!

There was a time when we loved people like Kanye West. We used to cheer when someone with more money and fame than a person could imagine stood up and shouted about injustice. You know why? Because those are the people who get heard. But now? Shut up and sing.

Well fuck that. This is a country built on revolution. There could very well come a time when we the people need someone with a lot more money and muscle than us to scream on our behalf. If that person ends up being Kanye West, well, we’re alright with that.