Whatever the hell just happened to Caño West?

Whatever the hell just happened to Caño West?

After all the criticism, after his comments about slavery; after supporting Trump… to go ahead and convert to Buddhism?

Nobody saw it coming. He toyed with Christianity for a while, and that seemed like the obvious move — the whole Born Again Christian thing. Islam would have been less surprising as a next step, given Raekwon and Ghostface Killah from the Wu Tang, but Caño didn’t seem to acknowledge that tradition much ever. The results in both cases probably wouldn’t have been this dramatic — but would have been equally surprising given his other sudden turn towards history and the scholastic. One can now almost imagine the kinds of rhymes he could have pulled off while discussing the trinity, the hadith or even Thomas Aquinas. I guess we’ll never know.

Anyway, suddenly we have a Buddhist Caño West, and my initial reaction was of course to wonder how much of it he really means. But he seems quite serious and… earnest about it. Like it really changed him. Buddhism is not really a religion, and Caño actually raps about that… but, like all philosophy, it does fill the place that religion would more often use up in many people’s lives. The interest makes the time.

What’s next? What comes after Buddhist Caño West, shouting to the world at large that what matters the most is to, get this, know yourself — and then use your knowledge to reduce human suffering? Can I dare to dream of him rapping about universal basic income?

I cannot help but wonder whether this is the best possible conversion for him, and humanity, at this point in human history. I wonder if, after all the recent sudden turns and apparent downward spiral, we might not suddenly find ourselves, for a change, in the best possible timeline. The best as of the time of writing: April 1st, 2020. A sunny Wednesday in the early 21st century.