By Ashwin Aggarwal

With historic albums like The Life of Pablo and Graduation, Kanye West (now known as Ye) seemed to have solidified himself as one of the greatest musical artists of the early 21st century. With a record-tying 21 Grammy Awards, Ye is one of the highest decorated hip-hop artists of all time. In 2013, Ye released the album Yeezus, which some fans speculated was because he regards himself as the God of rap and compares himself to Jesus Christ. While Ye has a very loyal fanbase, recent actions of his have caused his fans and other artists around the world to distance themselves from Ye, or outright repudiate him. 

Ye and a few of his many Grammy Awards.
Photo credit: Kevin Winter via Grammy Awards.

Although his actions these past few months have been baffling and offensive, Ye has been highly criticized in the news several times before. 

In 2009, during the annual MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), Ye entered the function with a bottle of hard liquor in his hand. When Taylor Swift’s “You Belong with Me” was awarded best Female Music Video, she was suddenly interrupted by Ye, who was sitting in front of the stage. He jumped next to Swift and grabbed the microphone and proceeded to congratulate Beyoncé on her music video instead of Swift’s. 

Actions such as this one and instances where Ye comments on controversial topics have put him in the spotlight of controversy and criticism. For example, in 2005, he said, in response to the Bush Administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” Or, in 2018: “When you hear about slavery for 400 years… For 400 years? That sounds like a choice.”

In 2016, Ye stated that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disease and his condition was impacting his relationship with his family. At the time, he was married to celebrity influencer Kim Kardashian, with whom he has four children. 

Kardashian and Ye finally settled their long-going divorce on March 2, 2022. Their marriage, which began in 2014, had become rocky after Ye announced that he was planning to run for president of the United States of America in the 2020 election. During one of his campaign speeches, Ye divulged private information about his family, more specifically his eldest child, North West. He stated that he and Kardashian had discussed aborting North West before she was born. Kardashian was reported to be furious because she was unaware that Ye would say this publically. 

Ye and Kim Kardashian
Photo credit: Gregory Pace via USA Weekly.

Since his divorce, Ye seems to be digging his own grave with a series of comments, tweets, and social media posts that have led to Ye losing his billionaire status, partnerships and sponsorships, and the respect of millions of his fans, as well as other public figures.

A timeline of the past few months portrays Ye’s fallout:

On October 3, during Paris’s Fashion Week, Ye was unveiling his latest collection from his fashion brand YZY, or Yeezy. However, his own choice of outfit drew more attention than the wardrobe he was presenting. Ye gave his presentation while wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt on the back side of it.

On October 7, Ye posted on Instagram that rap mogul Sean Combs, aka Diddy, was being controlled by Jewish people. This led to Instagram restricting his account. On October 8, Ye continued by taking to Twitter and tweeting that he was going to go “Death con3  ON JEWISH PEOPLE.” His tweet was then taken down and his account was restricted by Twitter.

On October 15, during an interview on the podcast Drink Champs, Ye falsely said George Floyd died from fentanyl use and not from a police officer kneeling on his neck.

Because of these posts on social media platforms, companies partnered with Ye have ended their relationship with the artist. Prominent companies like Vogue (October 15), Balenciaga (October 21), and Adidas (October 25) all stated that they cut ties with Ye. The Adidas fallout will prove to be costly for Ye, as it is estimated that the collaboration with Yeezy is estimated to be worth billions of dollars, and without the partnership, Ye will lose his billionaire status and most of his net worth. 

With Ye’s name in the headlines of the news so often, his own peers had to cut ties with him. Pro athletes, such as Aaron Donald (NFL) and Jaylen Brown (NBA), who signed with Ye’s Donda Sports, tweeted that they were cutting ties with Ye’s marketing agency due to his anti-Semitic remarks on social media.

The most recent anti-Semitic remark he made was on December 1 on an Infowars episode with Alex Jones, a widely-known racist, anti-Semite, and conspiracy theorist. Ye, who had his face covered with a black mask, stated “I like Hitler… I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis.”

Some Ye fans hope that Ye doesn’t dig himself into a deeper hole, even if his tarnished reputation isn’t salvageable. However, the dreadful actions of Ye don’t necessarily mean that his ready listeners around the world will stop enjoying his lyrical masterpieces. Avid Ye listener Stan Craig (‘23) stated that “I am appalled by his behavior. It has been really disappointing to see what [Ye] said and how he’s using his platform for hate. But, I think you are able to separate the artist from the art because, in some of his past music, he explores complex themes about race and racial justice that I think are exceptionally profound.” Ye was undeniably an influential and widely popular artist at one point, but as of late, it would be nearly impossible for anyone to call him a good person.

Featured photo credit: Evan Agostini via NBC News.