Kanye West: after his “I love Hitler”, the end of his career?

KANYE WEST. Rapper Kanye West, at the heart of controversy for months, caused a scandal (again) by confessing his admiration for Hitler, then posting a swastika on Twitter, before being banned by Elon Musk.

[Mis à jour le 02 décembre à 18h05] Did Kanye West just sign the end of his career for good? Increasingly isolated for weeks already due to anti-Semitic excesses, the American rapper sinks a little deeper by declaring his “admiration” for Hitler and more broadly for the Nazis, during an interview given on December 1 to the conspiratorial presenter Alex Jones. The artist, who came with his face fully hooded, also swung into Holocaust denial, maintaining that “the Holocaust is not what happened if you look at the facts, and Hitler had many redeeming qualities”.

Kanye West’s tirade seemed to surprise and make the host of the show Infowars uncomfortable, yet accustomed to television discrepancies. While Alex Jones tried to reframe the artist, Kanye West did not seize the opportunity, sinking further: “We have to stop insulting the Nazis all the time. (…) I love the Nazis”, “I love Hitler.” The deeds followed to the words with a Twitter post of an image of a swastika intertwining a Star of David, resulting in his banishment from the social network.

Yet another scandal that prompted an immediate response from Elon Musk, boss of the blue bird social network: Kanye West’s account was suspended this Friday, December 2 for “incitement to hatred”. The American platform Parler, popular with the far right, also turned away from the rapper who was on the verge of confirming the takeover of the social network. Parler’s management, however, clarified that the cancellation of the tentative agreement was due more to the artist’s financial problems than to his conduct.

Kanye West already banned from Instagram and Twitter

The suspension of Kanye West’s Twitter account decided on December 2 adds to the already long list of sidelining Yeezy on the networks. The American rapper, who has been in controversy for several weeks (years?), saw his Instagram and Twitter accounts restricted and several of his contents deleted last October. Meta, Instagram’s parent company, explained via its spokesperson that certain posts had been deleted “for violation of its rules.” Also, with this restriction, Kanye West, alias Ye on social networks, can no longer publish, write comments or send private messages, according to the same source.

A decision taken after Paris Fashion Week, during which Kanye West sported a t-shirt proclaiming “White Lives Matter”, or “White lives matter”, a slogan borrowed from white supremacists, who hijacked the “Black Lives Matter” of the summer 2020 anti-racism protests in the United States. After these first turmoil, it is on social networks that Kanye West would have caused a new controversy, by attacking the Jews in a publication since deleted.

The organization American Jewish Committee (AJC) accuses Ye, after this publication, of having promoted “hatred of Jews”. “Kanye West should find a way to put forward his point of view without resorting to anti-Semitism,” she denounced, reports AFP. Note that this is not the first time that Kanye West, who suffers from bipolar disorder, has been restricted on social networks: in March 2022, Instagram banned him from publishing for 24 hours, in full divorce with Kim Kardashian. He had attacked comedian Pete Davidson, his ex-wife’s new companion. He had also been accused of racism after messages against South African host Trevor Noah, head of the American talk show The Daily Show.

What are the anti-Semitic remarks alleged against Kanye West?

The speech of December 2 lending qualities to the Nazis, is not the first anti-Semitic fact of Kanye West. The controversy began in October with a few tweets and publications on social networks. On Instagram, it all started with the sharing of a screenshot of messages exchanged with another rapper, P. Diddy: “I will use you as an example to show the Jews who told you to call me that nobody cannot threaten or influence me”, wrote then Kanye West, which will have earned him to be blocked by the social network of Marc Zuckerberg.

Next came comments on Twitter, where Kanye West expressed his annoyance at being banned by Instagram. “I’m going to play ‘Death Con 3’ on JEWS. The funny thing is, I can’t be anti-Semitic because black people are actually Jewish. ‘oppose your plans’, the rapper wrote, alluding to DEFCON, the alert level of the armed forces in the United States which oscillates according to the military situation of the country, from 1 to 5, 5 being the minimum level, in times of peace.

DEFCON level 3 was, for example, reached after the attacks of September 11, 2001 or during the Yom Kippur war in 1973. It is applied during tense military situations.

Kanye West, from controversy to controversy

A few weeks later, Kanye West was banned from the 2022 Grammy Awards. The Recording Academy, which organizes the event each year, justified its decision by Kanye West’s “concerning online conduct”. And the misadventures of the one who is now called Ye do not stop there. End of March, a petition was born on the Internet, to deprogram the 44-year-old artist from the American Coachella festival. Bottom line: Nearly 50,000 signers agreed that “Coachella (along with other brands that continue to work with him) should be ashamed and should stop giving him the opportunity to speak ‘after he has’ harassed, threatened and harmed Kim (Kardashian), Pete (Davidson) and others for over a year.”

And to the organizers of the event to prove them right: Kanye West no longer appears in the Coachella line-up. It will be replaced by The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia on Sundays April 17 and 24, 2022.

Adidas, Balenciaga… The brands let go of Kanye West

Adidas joins the list of brands that have decided to move away from Kanye West, after his anti-Semitic remarks on Twitter: Balanciaga and Vogue had led the way, and the artist was banned from Twitter and Instagram, in addition to having been boycotted by the Grammy Awards and deprogrammed from festival Coachella.

The end of his collaboration with Adidas is a blow for Kanye West, who had developed his famous Yeezy sneakers with the brand since 2014. A fruitful partnership, which had made him a billionaire. Monday October 24, the famous American agency of lawyers CAA, which represents Kanye West, had also indicated to break its partnership. It is the same for the production company MRC, which had announced a documentary, already finished, on the rapper, finally canceled it. “We cannot support any content that expands its audience,” argued the agency, according to the Los Angeles Times.

A divorce with Kim Kardashian

If we no longer present Kanye West, his wife is also very famous. Born on October 21, 1980 in Los Angeles, she became known in the 2000s in several successful reality TV shows in the United States, where she participated with her family (she will also be talked about for a sextape published in 2007, then another in 2018). After her marriage to music producer Damon Thomas from 2000 to 2004, and several other high-profile relationships, Kim Kardashian appears with longtime friend Kanye West. From 2012, the two stars are inseparable, despite their respective relationship. In 2013, she became pregnant: North West, their first child, was born on June 15, 2013 in Los Angeles. The couple became engaged in October the same year and married on May 24, 2014 in Florence, Italy. Their second child, baptized Saint West, was born on December 5, 2015, then a daughter, Chicago, was born on January 15, 2015, born to a surrogate mother, Kim Kardashian having revealed that she could no longer have children. Finally, a fourth baby, Psalm, was born on May 10, 2019.

Tuesday, July 21, the series of messages posted by the rapper on Twitter did not reassure about the relationship he has with his wife. Kanye West, in tweets since deleted, implies that Kim Kardashian would be unfaithful and would have a relationship with another American rapper, Meek Mill.

Who is Meek Mill?

Since the series of messages posted by Kanye West on Twitter, Meek Mill finds himself in turn in the spotlight. Born May 6, 1987 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania UNITED STATES, Robert Rihmeek Williams of his real name, became known by integrating the label Maybach Music Group, founded by Rick Ross. Coming from a poor family, he quickly fell in love with rap and released several mixtapes, then a first album. Dreams and Nightmaresin 2012, which met with great success.

Meek Mill has collaborated with big names in international music like Mariah Carrey, Akon or Nas. In 2015, he was talked about for his relationship with rapper Nicki Minaj or for his conflict with Drake for suspicion of usurpation of music. In 2018, Meek Mill completed an eleven-year probation after being prosecuted for possession of drugs and firearms.

Kanye West has bipolarity

In recent years, the rapper has had a string of escapades. After his disjointed candidacy for the US presidential election in early July 2020, it was on Twitter that he decided to express himself in a series of equally strange tweets (and since deleted). In these messages, he explained that the family of his wife, Kim Kardashian, was trying to bring in doctors to treat him.

After nicknaming Kris Jenner, his mother-in-law, “Kris Jong-un”, referring to the North Korean leader, Kanye West implied that Kim Kardashian would have cheated on him. “I’ve been trying to divorce Kim since she met Meek (Meek Mill, an American rapper editor’s note.) at the Waldorf to talk about ‘prison reform’,” he wrote on Twitter, expressing his refusal to allow his mother-in-law, Kris Jenner, to approach her four children, North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm.

A new release that had worried about the mental health of Kanye West, who suffers from bipolar disorder. After having diagnosed it himself in his album Yes released in 2018, he explained in 2019 that this disease caused paranoid delusions in him. People with bipolar disorder alternate between manic phases, a state of high psychic excitement and depressive phases. A hereditary disease that can be treated with drugs that regulate patients’ moods, such as lithium.