It is genuinely difficult to find a celebrity figure as polarising as Kanye West. Just look at any comment section on a YouTube video referencing Kanye to find out. He’s been one of the biggest names in hip hop, both as a rapper and producer, for the past 10 years (especially impressive considering the short shelf-life of hip hop artists) and seems to sell out anything his hands have touched, from sneakers to £100 plain white T-shirts. On the other hand, there seems to be a significant number of people who seem positively enraged by his fame - starting with the 130,000 people who signed the petition to cancel his Glastonbury performance because, and I quote, “Kanye West is an insult to music fans all over the world”.

Now I’m not one to pay a terms rent on a pair of Yeezys, but I must admit that I’m puzzled by the intensity of Kanye-hate. More importantly, I think the reasons rock music fans especially hate Kanye reflect wider issues of race and music-elitism. There are plenty of good reasons to dislike Kanye, like his tendency for misogyny, but most common complaints strike me as either untrue or unfair. So here is my attempt to confront these attacks.

He’s arrogant.

Yup, he sure is. Kanye has compared himself to Disney, Shakespeare and Jesus. Guess who else is arrogant? A whole lot of artists. Oscar Wilde, Lou Reed, Andy Warhol – the list goes on. In fact, the list of horribly egotistical and offensive things that Noel Gallagher alone has said seems significantly longer (and less funny) than Kanye’s. Yet, I don’t recall people boycotting Oasis for Glastonbury. Why is it that the arrogance of these people is not such a hot-button topic as whenever Kanye jokingly compares himself to Steve Jobs, or calls himself a genius in an interview? If there was only some easily identifiable difference between Kanye and these artists. Just can’t think of any!

I don’t like his music.

Fair enough.

He has no talent.

Not so fair. To me, this reeks of the kind of shallow rockism that motivates those hilarious “GOD, SEND US BACK KURT COBAIN AND WE’LL GIVE YOU JAY Z” YouTube comments you used to see from “kids born in the wrong generation”, who still can’t quite accept that electronic music or rap is ‘real music’. You may not like Kanye’s music, but his influence extends to artists you might. From Future, Drake and Chance the Rapper in hip hop to indie-darlings like Bon Iver and Tim Hecker. No, Kanye can’t sing or play – but listen to the beat of Jesus Walks, his verse on Chicago street-violence on Murder to Excellence or, hell, literally anything off My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and tell me with a straight face that Kanye West has no talent. I’ll wait.

He only raps about money and women

This is just factually untrue. See ‘All Falls Down’, ‘So Appalled’, or ‘Real Friends’ for a start. Kanye’s talent has always been more in production and songwriting than clever lyricism. But apart from occasional misfires (like 90 per cent of The Life of Pablo), Kanye has been a politically active, topical and most of all hilarious lyricist for his entire career. Come on, admit it, it is pretty damn funny that he compares himself to Malcolm X because he’ll “Buy any jeans necessary”.

He’s too loud and opinionated.

This is true, but how is it a complaint? Starting from proclaiming that George Bush doesn’t care about black people on live TV in 2005, Kanye has never had a problem telling us his political opinions. Kanye, unlike a great many of his peers in mainstream music, does not stay silent about unarmed black teenagers being shot by the police, or racism in the fashion and music industries. He’s also not just talk – he’s spearheaded charity projects for Hurricane Katrina and inner-city education, as well as broader issues like global poverty and human rights. He’s not always smart about it, and has a tendency to go on nonsensical rants. I wouldn’t endorse the man’s presidency. But Kanye is a prominent political and unapologetic voice in an industry that promotes apolitical silence to maximise appeal.

He’s Illuminati, racist against white people and a gay fish.

Come on, man