Kanye West is officially the most famous person to visit the Occupy Wall Street protests currently raging into their 4th week in NYC.

Apparently not getting the memo that there’s an anti-materialistic bent to these protests, West arrived with his gold grill shining, along with a few gold chains (or, mardi gras beads?) to match.

Nothing too gaudy, mind you.

He chatted it up with Russell Simmons, caused an insane stir amongst the demonstrators, and then chucked the deuce before things got too out of hand.

I’m basically all for this. The fact that celebrities and other prominent individuals are interested in seeing these protests firsthand is a testament to the growing popularity of the movement.

But I wonder if Kanye realizes that his music – particularly that disappointing, shallow, absurdly out of touch Watch The Throne – is unapologetically steeped in the greedy, materialistic, wealth-worshipping bullshit that we’re sort of rejecting with these protests.

Who knows; after actually witnessing public sentiment firsthand, maybe he’ll do a bit less of the shameless name-checking of every exotic, exclusive, uber-expensive name brand he can think of.

What say you, BYP readers? Is Kanye’s appearance at @OccupyWallSt. a sign of it’s growing power…or its overexposure?

Sound off below!