Kanye West debuted his newly shaved head in public on Sunday, when he headed out for a meeting in Los Angeles.
West posted a selfie with his shaved head on Twitter on Saturday, after calling the Florida school shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez his “hero.” The tweet had no punctuation and an awkward double space between the word “hero” and Emma.” He wrote “inspired by Emma” alongside the picture, which showed him glaring sternly into the camera.
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inspired by Emma pic.twitter.com/TiZMthLK92
โ KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 29, 2018
He looked much more cheerful on Sunday, however, as he went out to a meeting in Calabasas. He wore an unusually casual get-up, consisting of a white tracksuit over a white t-shirt and Adidas socks in the photos, published by Daily Mail.
Kanye West flashes a smile at a meeting in LA after revealing shaved head in honour of Parkland shooting survivor https://t.co/908v7w0mhd
โ Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) April 30, 2018
What was really uncharacteristic was the beaming smile he flashed for photographers as he passed. West has a historically combative relationship with the press, especially paparazzi photographers, yet his new philosophy of universal love seemed to extend even to reporters this weekend.
While West said that his new style was out of admiration for Emma Gonzalez, the student activist didn’t seem to return his feelings. She mimicked his awkward spacing exactly, writing “my hero James Shaw Jr.,” along with a photo of Shaw.
Shaw made headlines earlier this month when he tackled a mass shooter in the midst of an attack on a Nashville, Tennessee Waffle House, despite being unarmed himself. He has since raised over $150,000 for the funerals of the four people killed in that shooting.
Gonzalez did not tag West or link her tweet to his in any way, though it was understood as a direct response. A fellow survivor of the Parkland, Florida school shooting, Cameron Kasky, responded with “Dragon energy,” a reference to a recent post by West.
Gonzalez and many of her classmates have not let up in their push for gun law reform. On Saturday, student activist David Hogg travelled to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where he persuaded six more congressional representatives to sign a pledge not to take money from the National Rifle Association anymore, according to his tweet.
Meanwhile, West has alienated a huge swath of his audience by defending his support for President Trump. His Twitter feed is filled with messages about universal love and positive mindset, sprinkled with arguments that he supports the president as a matter of “free thought.”
“You don’t have to agree with Trump, but the mob can’t make me not love him,” West wrote Wednesday. “We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don’t agree with everything anyone does. That’s what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.”