Kanye West has long been one of the most divisive individuals in the entertainment world, but his latest statements and messages that were both anti-Semitic and white nationalist have turned off both his supporters and business partners.
Another unfortunate turn for the once-hailed as an artistic genius rapper and fashion mogul, whose obstinate contrarianism has led him to start confusing free speech with hate speech.
The most recent scandals, which broke out during Paris Fashion Week and following a Fox News interview, have damaged his reputation as a disruption agent and his standing in the fashion and music industries.
The 45-year-old West made his breakthrough with “The College Dropout” in 2004 and has since gone on to unironically compare himself to Michelangelo.
Sometimes people praised him for his candor in his remarks. For example, in 2005, he criticized George W. Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina, making a televised fundraising concert urgently in need of aid before declaring, “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people.”
But his musings became more loud and divisive in the decades that followed.
West, who has openly discussed his battle with bipolar disease, experienced a mental collapse following the tumultuous release of his album “The Life of Pablo.” As a result, he vanished from the public spotlight.
He reappeared in late 2016 and entered Trump Tower to see the incoming president.
He caused a stir by endorsing the Republican millionaire, whose four years in office were plagued by numerous claims of racism and sexism.
West and Trump had a bizarre encounter in Washington in 2018 that included a hug and an on-camera tirade from West.
Additionally, Ye, West’s longtime nick name, mounted his own unsuccessful campaign for the American presidency as an independent candidate of the Birthday Party during the 2020 election. Ye eventually legally changed his name to Ye.
Since then, West has repeatedly crossed the line, earning the label “attention junkie.”
He was wearing a shirt that supported white supremacist ideology during the most recent Paris Fashion Week. A few days later, his Twitter and Instagram accounts were suspended due to anti-Semitic postings.
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) criticized West for “fomenting hatred of Jews,” and a number of other famous people condemned him and encouraged him to change his ways.
The AJC group stated that Kanye West “should figure out how to convey a message without employing anti-Semitism.”
After Vice released unedited video of the artist making comments that were laced with racist conspiracy theories, the already contentious Fox News interview with the artist gained much more notoriety.
Producers of the LeBron James-starrer “The Shop: Uninterrupted” announced this week that they were canceling an episode that would have included Kanye West because they claimed he exploited the platform to “reiterate more hate speech and extremely dangerous stereotypes.”
He abruptly ended his relationship with Gap, and German sportswear giant Adidas announced it was reevaluating their tense association.
The rapper has long provoked the media, and these are just his most shocking recent actions.
In the midst of his contentious split from reality star Kim Kardashian, with whom he has four children, West earlier this year broke Instagram’s harassment rules, earning him a 24-hour posting restriction.
The consensus this time around has highlighted that psychiatric crises are not a defense for discriminatory behavior, but in the past some analysts have given West the benefit of the doubt because of his mental illness.
The artist was referred to as “a gloomy, narcissistic attention seeker and praise junkie” by columnist Charles Blow in The New York Times opinion section.
He watches over his agony. He cultivates it and uses it. Some of it might be organically occurring, while some of it is created to lengthen the narrative.
