Wrap Investigation: The musician has made problematic statements about Jewish people — many of them public — on at least a half-dozen occasions
These were some of the lyrics and statements that were included in the song:
These examples were created by former associates of Ye. They wrote to Ye to say that they wanted to shine light on Ye’s past. “long-time conspiratorial fixation on Jews and ‘Jewish power’ as well as a long-term evolved obsession with Adolf Hitler.” The trail of lyrics suggests that Ye’s recent flurry of antisemitic statements are not new, and that the pattern has been common knowledge in at least some music industry circles for more than a decade.
Ryder Ripps, a former creative director for Ye in 2014 and 2018, said he has concluded that Ye’s remarks were more than just an artist seeking shock value. “He asked me, ‘Do you think it’s a problem that I study Nazis?’”Ripps stated that he thought so, and that he had also told that. “psychotic.”Yet “there’s a fascination, admiration of Jews. He hired me and knew I was Jewish.”
Ripps said that Ye had been corrected once by him: “Jews don’t run everything. My grandfather came to this country and ran a laundromat in Queens. It’s not some cabal.”
Ripps says that Ripps would be saying things like “‘Jews have the codes.’ ‘I’d say ‘dude, that’s not true.’”
Ye, who once said he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder — though later claimed that he was misdiagnosed by a Jewish doctor — has been disavowed in recent weeks by brands like Adidas, The Gap and Balenciaga after he made a series of antisemitic comments on social media and to reporters — including a now-removed tweet that he was going “deathcon3” on all Jewish people — that sparked hate speech in Los Angeles, Florida and online. Universal Music Group has confirmed that Ye was no longer a recording artist under its Def Jam Label. This will be in 2021.
I was unable reach Ye or locate any artists for comment.
But ’s investigation found that Ye’s history of antisemitic statements has gone back for nearly two decades. Ye rapped the following lyrics at the Rock the Mic Freestyle 2005 event with Teefa, Chicago-based radio personality. “I’m tight with my dough like my family Jews, Uh! I said ‘Jews’ my career is screwed,”According to recordings Posted on YouTube
Brian Levin is the founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism (Cal State University, San Bernardino). These lyrics reflect the views of Brian Levin. “an age-old trope respecting Jews being dishonest with money.”
In November 2007, in his “Flashing Lights”Song on the “Graduation” Album. Ye described paparazzi photographers in a more offensive way than Nazis, and used a controversial derivative to the N-word as he did. “And try to hit you with the ol-wu-wopte, ‘Til I got flashed by the paparazzi, Damn, these n—-s got me, I hate these n—-s more than a Nazi,”The lyrics read:
Such comments are concerning because they serve to “minimize the atrocities of Nazism in a rather unbalanced, narcissistic way,”Levin stated. “Any time that kind of evil is misdirected or minimized, it takes us off the path of actual knowledge about the myriad atrocities done during the Third Reich,”Levin also noted that this is particularly important as Nazi atrocities survivors and researchers are dying and people are more susceptible to disinformation.
“Jews are convenient [as a scapegoat] because they are historically and in contemporary society widely discredited as being evil — and it’s an amorphous fit and it goes across subcultures and ideologies and this is just the latest example,”Levin added that speech by influential people can correlate “to increases in hate invective online and even directed hate crimes on the streets.”
Antisemitic hate incidents in many major U.S. towns are on the rise for two consecutive years. According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism (Centre for the Study of Hate and Extremism), Los Angeles has experienced a 13% increase of hate crimes this year, while New York City has seen 35% more. “We see it in Europe from the far right. We see it in other parts of the world — this notion that Jews are dishonest or involved in some part of a cabal. It’s ubiquitous,” Levin noted.
Ye was criticized for his comments at the Big Chill music festival, Ledbury, England in 2011. He compared himself with HitlerThe crowd booed, according to reports. He was being criticized for his actions. “Monster”Music video featuring women cannibalism and on a noose was misogynistic.
“I walk through the hotel and I walk down the street, and people look at me like I’m f—ing insane, like I’m Hitler. But one day, one day the light will shine through and one day people will understand everything I ever did, ever said…”He spoke from the podium.
In November 2013, he was interviewed. “The Breakfast Club”Kanye reiterated stereotypes regarding Jewish people being rich in a podcast. “We ain’t Jewish! We don’t got family that got money like that!”He said this in the interview. He also said, when referring to then-President Barack Obama’s challenges in making headway on his policy goals in Washington, D.C., that “Black people don’t have the same level of connections as Jewish people.”
Ye’s longtime collaborator and associate Malik Yusef defended Ye’s controversial lyrics, which he said in an interview with are “100% for entertainment.”
Rap is “a lot of verbosity, but it’s also born out of rebellion so it has to be rebellious,”He said. “It actually has to skirt the lines, you know, because of the nature of that particular art.”
Yusef suggested that Ye should have named the Jewish people with whom he has problems in interviews and not their religion. “To criticize the manner in which he excoriated certain people in that group through kind of damaging the whole group was maybe juvenilistic [sic] on his part, but nevertheless, I would say, with a bazooka to my head that Kanye is not antisemitic,”Yusef spoke.
But Ye’s former creative director Ripps disputed that, alleging that one of Ye’s former employees was paid hush money by the rapper because “he had a tape of Ye saying I love Hitler. To delete the video, he paid out money.” NBC News,A report earlier in the month it said that it had reviewed the settlement documents in that matter. Ripps also added: “This guy has been trying to sow the seeds of Nazism for years.”
Ripps confirmed that Ye had at one point wanted to name his 2018 album “Ye” according to numerous online reports “Hitler.” Ye hasn’t denied the rumors and it has been a subject of vigorous discussion in music circles. The Def Jam album was released under that name. “Ye.”
“What do I think of Kanye calling his album ‘Hitler’? In 2018 I’d say he wanted out of his deal [with Def Jam],” Ripps said. “Now I don’t think that. I think he’s studied Hitler, and Nazis, and is using their playbook. I have no idea what his end goal is — he’s an egomaniac.”
While Ye has made antisemitic comments, Levin said it’s unclear what role his apparent mental health condition has “on his expression of paranoid ideations.”
Yusef reiterated the belief, however, that “Black people are Hebrews”Ye stated that it was uncommon for a Black person in antisemitic behavior. Ye himself claimed that Black people are “Jews”And “Semites”Therefore, they cannot be considered antisemitic.
According to ADL This beliefBlack Hebrew Israelite ideology asserts that some people of color can be considered the true descendants biblical Israelites. “Extremists use this concept to promote antisemitism, claiming that Jewish people today are imposters who stole the religious heritage of Black people and are engaged in a global conspiarcy to oppress non-Jewish people,”On its website, the ADL states.
While the ADL notes that there’s no evidence that Ye views himself as a member of any organized extremist group, Ye has long had a relationship with Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan, who blames the Jewish people for Black oppression is a crime that has been labelled antisemitic both by the ADL (and the Southern California Law Center).
After the ADL called out Ye’s 2013 remarks on “The Breakfast Club”As “classic antisemitism,”In public comments, Farrakhan advised Ye not to apologize for Jewish people. Ye said at a concert that he had spoken to Farrakhan and wouldn’t apologize.
In the 2016 song All Day, Ye references his relationship with Farrakhan. “Just talked to Farrakhan, that’s sensei, n—-” and referenced Farrakhan’s lieutenant, Brother Don Muhammad, in a song by the same name in 2016, which included the lyrics “Black on Black lies is worse than Black on Black crime. The Jews share their truth on how to make a dime.”
Ye also visited the Nation of Islam’s Chicago headquarters in 2005 to express his support for its Millions More Movement, which commemorated the 10th anniversary of the group’s Million Man March, and attended an event that Farrakhan held in Los Angeles in 2015, according to the ADL.
The rapper also used offensive language in many other situations:
2016A work track for Ye’s song “Nina Chop,”This was eventually renamed “Famous,”Leaked onto the Internet with the following lyrics taken from the final version of the song: “The world turnin’ Black slowly, where you can call n—-s ‘n—-s, but you better not mention Hitler, so tell me who run the label, where the guns from?”
Ye allegedly praised Hitler during a TMZ live-taping in 2018, during his infamous. “slavery is a choice” interview. Van Lathan was a former TMZ employee. “Higher Learning” podcast episodeLast month, West said something similar “I love Hitler. I love Nazis,” but that those comments weren’t included in the final cut for reasons that were unknown to him. TMZ founder Harvey Levin didn’t respond to ’s request for comment on this incident.
And recently revealed that producers of David Letterman’s Netflix interview with Ye in 2019 edited out a reference to Nazis and offensive remarks about Rihanna and the physical abuse she endured from ex-boyfriend Chris Brown.
Amid last month’s flurry of Ye’s antisemitic comments, longtime Ye collaborator Talib Kweli argued on TikTok Ye “has been thoroughly indoctrinated with Nazi propaganda.” In the post, which was directed to Ye’s crew, staff, friends and family, he also wrote “our silence is complicity at this point. Real friends don’t let their friends say Nazi stuff.”
Jewish people aren’t the only ones who have been targeted by the popular rapper. Ye was reportedly heard using slurs during a 2018 track called “It’s All About You” “DJ Khaled’s Son”To describe not only Jews, but also gay people, Latinos, and women. Although the song was never released, a portion was first performed.Post onlineAbout a year ago.
His 2018 televised speech that he made in the meantime can be viewed here “slavery is a choice,”Wearing a “White Lives Matter”T-shirt and his mischaracterizations of the 2020 murder of George Floyd. An unarmed victim of police brutality. This has offended many in Black communities.
Once one of the most influential rappers of his generation, Ye’s statements are compounded by two factors, according Miki Turner, an associate professor of Professional Practice at the USC Annenberg School and a former pop culture critic: He’s both “an attention whore,”Someone who incites people and someone with a mental illness. “It doesn’t appear that any of the blowback ever really affects him and maybe that’s because he doesn’t hear it in its proper context,”Turner stated. “For whatever reason, he may not realize the damage he’s doing.”
Ye was the one she called. “equal-opportunity offender” since his lyrics and statements have upset a wide range of groups — there’s “some sort of disconnect between him and the Jews,”She suggested that it could be related to some trauma he experienced in childhood. “Why he’s just obsessed with this stereotypical image of the Jewish community, I don’t know where that comes from.”
Ye seems to be going downhill since the death of his mother Donda in 2007. She was an independent caregiver and likely a moderating influence in his life. Turner stated that Ye seemed to be spiraling downwards. “I have so much empathy for him right now,”She said. “It is so very clear that he is lost in space. I feel like there is nobody around him that can help him climb out of this hole he’s in and to me, that’s very very sad.”
Jody Armour is a USC Law School Professor and noted that many Black people suggested that Jews should have a lot to be emulated because they are historically marginalized groups that have overcome adversity, and in general excelled. Moreover, people do feel comfortable talking about different ethnic and religious groups, such as when people talk about the Jewish vote or the Black vote, and that doesn’t make people antisemitic or racist.
“The problem is when you go beyond that and say, you know, therefore, they are behind some kind of conspiracy,”He said.
Armour said that Ye has also spouted anti-Black sentiments and misogynoir — misogyny against Black women — “for a long time without real consequence”In his lyrics and public comments. “Was the Holocaust a choice? Would anybody say that any calamity is the fault of a marginalized community?” Armour said, referring to Ye’s “slavery is a choice”Comment during the 2018 TMZ Interview
Even when you are voicing “viciously anti-Black stuff,”Armour said that Ye was given significant leeway by journalists, media outlets, and company owners.
Sharon Waxman contributed this article.
