
there’s something missing. can you feel it? a slight twinge in the universe, quick and subtle, but a definite sign that something in the world just shifted. ah, here’s what it is—kanye west just deleted his twitter and instagram accounts.









the rapper apparently decided to abolish his social-media presence on friday, waving good-bye to all those followers and likes and faves. those tweets about wiz khalifa’s cool pants? gone. that “###hashtag all positive vibes” tweet? gone. those “i’m so lucky” tweets accompanied by nearly nude shots of his wife, kim kardashian west? banished to the nothingness hinterlands of deleted posts. so too are all those random insta photos of old margiela lookbooks. for what it’s worth, west was never much of an instagram power user anyway, deferring to his wife on that social platform (though he occasionally made strong post recommendations). his twitter account, however, was practically an extended part of his brain, a home for stream-of-consciousness thoughts that caused as much controversy as they did delight. so why did he delete it? and what does it all mean right now?









well, this isn’t the first time west has waved good-bye to his social-media platforms. sometimes, it’s because the artist wants to garner a little bit of buzz for upcoming projects. back in 2013, west deleted all of his tweets, leaving only one cryptic message up: “june eighteen.” that ended up being the release date for his upcoming album yeezus, which was famously inspired by a corbusier lamp and was released without an album cover or promotional singles.









so what could it be this time around? west ended 2016 on a rough personal note, hospitalized for exhaustion and sleep deprivation. he later kicked up controversy by meeting with donald trump at trump tower shortly after his election, tweeting about it, and then deleting those tweets. west, as all his fans know, has serious political aspirations, announcing his presidential dreams at, of all west-ian locations, the 2016 mtv video music awards.









nevertheless, west has been maintaining a low profile as of late and is probably putting his political dreams on the back burner for the moment. it’s more likely that he’s deleting his social accounts (1) to get attention, and/or (2) for an upcoming artistic project. the workaholic is constantly working on new music and new fashion for his yeezy season line and adidas collection. on friday, he and kardashian west launched thekidssupply, a high-priced children’s clothing collection. he recently released a high-end collection of religious-inspired gold jewelry. “i wanted to create something that represented timeless love,” he recently told vogue.









the only thing missing from his endless release cycle is . . . new music. last year, shortly after releasing the life of pablo (a release cycle marked by controversial tweets), __west tweeted about a cryptic new music project titled turbo grafx 16, after the old gaming console. however, that project seems to have fallen to the wayside, as there have been new rumblings of a nasa-inspired project, though it was later debunked by fans. still, it’s impossible to believe he’s not working on something new.









but maybe—just maybe—west is . . . merely enjoying being an incredibly rich celebrity? taking a much-needed break from the public eye? the fashion-obsessed star recently skipped the met gala, an event he’s frequented numerous times over the year as the chief ambassador of #vibes and shredded jeans. why did he skip it? he just wanted to stay home, according to his wife.









“he’s been taking some time off and really loving that,” she told andré leon talley on the red carpet.









o.k., we’ll consider that story . . . for now. but don’t expect west to stay off social media for too long.