John-Michael Bond of The 1st Five has penned an open letter to Kanye West after West whined on Twitter about his near pornographic album cover being predictable "banned". John-Michael views the controversy in a different light and urges Kanye to stop complaining and use this to look to the greater good for music. He writes in part:Naturally, being one of level head and quiet business sense, you have lashed out further on the social media network. "So Nirvana can have a naked human being on they cover but I can't have a PAINTING of a monster with no arms and a polka dot tail and wings," you asked. The answer Kanye is yes. Yes, Nirvana can have a naked human baby on the front of their album cover. But since the LA Times is reporting that the real issue with your album art is that places like Walmart might not stock it, might I make an observation.
You can't buy Nevermind by Nirvana at Walmart. You can get it from their online store, but at least up until a few years ago when I stopped going to Walmart the retail giant did not stock Nevermind. Explicitly because of that little baby wang. Even though it is one of the biggest selling albums of all time. Even though it was from a band who changed the face of music. They even edited the copies of Nirvana's album that they were willing to sell, In Utero, by changing the title of the song "Rape Me" to "Waif Me." Walmart doesn't care about artistic expression. This shouldn't be a surprise. - But there is a bigger problem and what should Kanye do about it?
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