Kanye at his weekend rally in South Carolina.
Photo: Randall Hill / REUTERS
Two men close to Kanye West, none of whom had political experience, appeared to be behind the unsuccessful effort of the newly declared candidate to get to the polls in South Carolina.
According to two local South Carolina political agents who met with them, the key figures were Stephen Blake Kanicka, a Grammy-nominated Christian music composer who was the music supervisor for the anti-abortion film Not planned, and John Boyd, who has five children who are members of Infinity’s Song, a musical group favored by West. Boyd, who has been described as West’s spiritual advisor, was supporting West during his political rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Sunday.
The rapper, who joined the Federal Election Commission and is on the ballot as a presidential candidate in Oklahoma, launched a last-ditch effort to reach the polls in South Carolina over the weekend. To qualify, West needed to collect 10,000 valid signatures by noon on Monday. But the rapper’s campaign did not submit any to the South Carolina Electoral Council.
Chris Whitmire, spokesman for the South Carolina Electoral Council, said Intelligencer, “The petition deadline for the 2020 general election has passed and the state electoral commission has not received a petition from Kanye West. There are no exceptions to the term. “
West provisionally qualified for the vote on Monday in Illinois, which requires a much lower limit of 2,500 signatures.
One of South Carolina’s political agents who spoke with Intelligencer is CJ Westfall, who most recently worked on a failed Republican campaign for Congress. Westfall connected with Kanye’s campaign on Saturday after going to one of the locations where signatures were being collected to put West on the ballot. He says the woman who was collecting signatures on behalf of the rapper connected him with Kanicka.
Westfall said that by publicizing his political experience and his Kanye fandom (Westfall has a Bear Bear tattoo), in addition to providing the campaign with an email list from the local press so they could share information about their signature collection efforts , able to arrange a meeting with Kanicka and Boyd. Westfall described Boyd as “the decision maker”. TMZ reported in 2019 that the rapper is “super close” to Boyd and receives “spiritual support” from him.
Westfall said he was informed that “Kanye refused to meet with the Black Lives Matter and wanted to protect the family unit”. Shakem Akhet, a friend of Westfall and a local political colleague, also attended the meeting via speakerphone. Subsequently, both were invited to the political rally on Sunday as VIPs.
However, this is where it all started to go aside. Westfall said he received an angry email from Kanicka’s wife for passing on contact information to someone at a local hip-hop station and was warned not to text or contact Kanicka. Westfall said Kanicka later prevented him from joining the VIP group to briefly meet West backstage after the rally and caused Kanye’s supporter to be removed by security.
Akhet also did not find West backstage after the event. He was ashamed to do that. Although Akhet told Intelligencer before the event that he thought West was “definitely very serious” based on his conversations with the campaign, he changed his mind after seeing West on stage. “He’s not serious,” said Akhet after watching what he described as “an incoherent speech.” Akhet said Boyd approached him after the event to encourage him to meet the rapper to no avail: “He said, ‘Hey man, are you coming backstage?’ I said no. He knew I was upset. “
For Westfall, the experience left him “deeply hurt”. A devoted fan of the rapper, he saw West as “a mentally ill man who needs his mother” and worried that the people around him were taking advantage of him. “I hope Kanye sees your writing and knows that your team is full of yes men,” he said.
In a brief phone conversation, Kanicka told Intelligencer about the North Charleston campaign and event: “It was a moment.” In response to a text message accompanying his role in the campaign, Kanicka said: “I worked with Kanye West in a variety of other areas (like music), but I was not hired to be in the campaign. Untitled. No position. Always enthusiastic about helping Kanye. “
West’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
This post has been updated to include news of West’s filing in Illinois.