Kanye West
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Kanye West took to Instagram on Sunday (Oct. 30) to respond to news that his Christian K-12 private school Donda Academy was closed following recent controversy surrounding the rapper.
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Ye shared a graphic photo of Emmett Till, who was tortured and lynched at just 14 years old after being accused of offending a white woman in 1955. He also posted a series of photos of Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, who wrote in an op-ed for the Financial Times last week that West’s business partners, including companies that profit off his music — such as Apple, Spotify, Adidas and his touring partners — should stop working with the star.
Ye references Emanuel by name in his caption, writing, “Can you find a place for the Donda Academy kids to go to school that’s properly zoned for a school? I got about 60 children that have no place to be as they look to transfer.”
He also brought up the Donda Academy basketball team, which was removed by Scholastic Play-By-Play Classics from the season schedule following the rapper’s string of anti-Semitic and racist comments. “They tried to dismantle our basketball team. Those boys are being penalized without reason,” Ye wrote. “Even professional athletes were threatened by their owners to disassociate.”
Ye then referred to his recent repercussions as “what modern post social media #Blackmirror warfare looks like,” adding three bullet points that read “economic lynching,” “digital lynching” and “bankrupting my social credit score.”
“You tried to destroy my life after all the money I’ve made for the ‘business’ people,” he wrote. “At least as I burn to the stake in front of the whole world… // everyone now knows who they need to really be afraid of. And now eeeeveryone knows how much power you ‘Business’ people actually have.”
He continued, “To everyone in the world! // Take me as an example of what will happen if you show any frustration. Your frustration does not matter! We declare today the day when no human is allowed to be human. Please note that I have never physically hurt anyone.”
See Ye’s full post here.
The star’s Instagram account was restricted again on Monday (Oct. 31) following his latest reported violation of the platform’s policies. “We deleted content from @kanyewest for violating our policies and placed a restriction on the account,” a Meta spokesperson told Complex. “We may place restrictions on accounts that repeatedly break our rules, for example, we may temporarily restrict them from posting, commenting, or sending DMs.”
This latest locking of Ye’s account comes after Instagram and Twitter both placed temporary restrictions on his social media accounts after he posted antisemitic comments earlier in October
A celebrity accountant is suing Kanye West for $4.5 million in allegedly unpaid fees, claiming the embattled artist and entrepreneur abruptly fired him just weeks after hiring him and told him he was “insane” if he thought he would stick to their agreement.
In a lawsuit filed Oct. 21, Thomas St. John claims he was hired in May by Yeezy LLC to serve as its chief financial officer for an 18-month contract with a $300,000 per month fee. He says he demanded those guarantees because of the “risks” of working with West and to assure the star “would not simply walk away.”
But St. John claims that West then did exactly that. At a June meeting at the pricey Malibu restaurant Nobu Ryokan, the accountant claims West “became heated and aggressive” and then abruptly terminated his new CFO.
“He screamed at Mr. St. John and made clear he no longer wanted to work with Plaintiff,” St. John’s lawyers wrote. “When confronted by the 18-month commitment that had just been made, Mr. West stated words to the effect of ‘the 18 month term was bullsh–’ and ‘you’re insane for even thinking I would stick to it.’”
If the new lawsuit is any indication, it looks like St. John plans to stick to it. He says West has made just three of the 18 payments he owes — and is demanding that a court order him to pay the $4.5 million owed on the deal.
Even though it involves millions of dollars, St. John’s new lawsuit might barely even register on the list of problems currently facing the once-beloved rapper.
After a string of antisemitic statements earlier this month, West has lost nearly every aspect of his once-formidable business empire. His representatives at CAA have dropped him, and his signature fashion partnerships with Adidas, The Gap and Balenciaga have all been terminated. It’s hard to know if he’ll even have lawyers to rep him in the current case, since many of his attorneys have begun to cut ties as well.
Even before the current whirlwind, West was already being accused of stiffing business partners. In early July, the high-end fashion rental service David Casavant Archive said West never returned more than a dozen “esteemed” items and owed $400,000 in late fees. A few weeks later, the production company Phantom Labs said the star owed $7.1 million for work done on his cancelled Coachella and other events.
A spokesperson for West could not be located to comment on the new lawsuit. Multiple former press representatives for West have recently told Billboard that they no longer work with him.
Texas A&M will no longer use Kanye West’s “Power” for the football team’s pregame entrance song, athletic director Ross Bjork revealed on Thursday (Oct. 27).
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Instead, he revealed that the team will use “sound effects & Aggie Drum Line transitioning to the War Hymn.”
After further reflection of options, we will not choose a song for the team entrance into Kyle Field-we will use sound effects & Aggie Drum Line transitioning to the War Hymn. The 12th Man creates the best environment in college football-see you on Saturday night! #BTHOolemiss https://t.co/1BmzibbZVr— Ross Bjork (@RossBjorkAD) October 28, 2022
Ye made headlines earlier this month at his Yeezy Paris Fashion Week for wearing a shirt emblazoned with the phrase “White Lives Matter” on its back, and featuring Black models in the shirt. The phrase is one that was adopted by neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
He also went on an aggressive anti-Semitic rant on social media. After posting that he was about to go “[defcon] 3” on “Jewish people” over the weekend of Oct. 8, he was temporarily restricted from using both Instagram and Twitter.
In a since-deleted Drink Champs interview, Ye declared offensive remarks, blaming the murder of George Floyd on fentanyl and claiming that Jewish people are “[owning] the Black voice” through Black people wearing a Ralph Lauren shirt, “being signed to a record label, or having a Jewish manager, or being signed to a Jewish basketball team, or doing a movie on a Jewish platform like Disney.”
Several companies — including The Gap, Balenciaga, Adidas and more — have already terminated their relationships and brand deals with the rapper.
In an Instagram post on Thursday morning (Oct 27) addressed to Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel — who last week urged companies to stop working with West — the rapper who now goes by Ye wrote, “Ari Emanuel. I lost 2 billion dollars in one day. And I’m still alive. This is love speech. I still love you. God still loves you. The money is not who I am. The people is who I am.”
Kanye West was escorted out of the Skechers office in Manhattan Beach, Calif., after the controversial MC showed up unannounced on Wednesday afternoon (Oct. 26). The company said in a statement that Ye was escorted out by two executives following his recent antisemitic remarks.
“Kanye West — also referred to as Ye — arrived unannounced and without invitation at one of Skechers’ corporate offices in Los Angeles,” the company said in a statement. “Considering Ye was engaged in unauthorized filming, two Skechers executives escorted him and his party from the building after a brief conversation.
“Skechers is not considering and has no intention of working with West,” the statement continued. “We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate antisemitism or any other form of hate speech. The Company would like to again stress that West showed up unannounced and uninvited to Skechers corporate offices.”
Several companies and organizations have also dropped Ye recently over his racist and antisemetic remarks, including Adidas, Gap, Foot Locker and TJ Maxx.
“At TJX we do not tolerate discrimination, harassment, or hate of any kind,” read a statement shared by TJ Maxx with CNN. “We have instructed our buying teams not to purchase this merchandise for sale in any of our stores globally.”
Forbes noted that the Chicago native lost his billionaire status when Adidas severed ties with him, dropping his net worth to $400 million — down from $1.5 billion with the Adidas deal.
“We will not be supporting any future Yeezy product drops, and we have instructed our retail operators to pull any existing product from our shelves and digital sites,” a spokesperson for Foot Locker told CNN, adding that the company will remain “a partner with Adidas and carry a wide assortment of their collections.”
Ye’s current fall from grace began Oct. 3 when he featured shirts printed with the phrase “White Lives Matter” during his Paris Fashion Week show. A few days later, he was suspended from Twitter and Instagram for posting anti-Jewish hate speech, which continued in interviews with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, REVOLT’s Drink Champs and more.
Madame Tussauds is the latest brand to sever its ties with Kanye West amid his recent antisemitic comments.
On Wednesday (Oct. 26), the famous wax museum known for its celebrity figures issued a statement announcing its plans to pull Ye’s figure from the main display floor and into an archive.
“Ye’s figure has been retired from the attraction floor to our archive. Each profile earns their place at Madame Tussauds London and we listen to our guests and the public on who they expect to see at the attraction,” a spokesperson for Madame Tussauds told BBC.
Billboard has reached out for comment.
Though Madame Tussauds has several outposts around the world, there has never been a figure of the rapper in the United States, which includes locations in New York City, Orlando, San Francisco, Hollywood, Las Vegas and Nashville.
The removal of Ye’s wax figure from Madame Tussauds is one of the most recent developments in a week filled with actions against the rapper — on Tuesday alone, Adidas, Foot Locker and Gap all announced their respective brands would be making plans to remove all Yeezy products from their websites and physical retail stores. Losing the Adidas deal was a major loss for Ye, and resulted in his net worth dropping to $400 million and his removal from Forbes‘ billionaires list.
Earlier on Wednesday, TJ Maxx also announced that buyers for its retail locations have been advised to not purchase Yeezy products. Read our complete timeline of the consequences Ye has faced for his antisemitic comments and “White Lives Matter” shirts here.
Scholastic Play-By-Play Classics announced on Wednesday (Oct. 26) that it is dropping Kanye West‘s Donda Academy team from its season schedule following the rapper’s string of anti-Semitic and racist comments.
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“While we are firm in our reasoning for this decision, it does not diminish our heartache and regret for Donda’s hardworking athletes who will lose out the most as a result of Kanye’s actions,” the organization shared in a statement, according to TMZ, who first reported the news. “Unfortunately, we cannot in good conscience host an organization founded and directed by Mr. West at our events.”
The Donda Academy team was set to appear at the Dec. 11 event in Louisville.
Ye made headlines earlier this month at his Yeezy Paris Fashion Week for wearing a shirt emblazoned with the phrase “White Lives Matter” on its back, and featuring Black models in the shirt. The phrase is one that was adopted by neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
He followed up on Twitter, using antisemitic rhetoric in his posts, then double down on his hate speech in interviews. Since then, his social media accounts have been suspended. Several companies — including The Gap, Balenciaga, Adidas and more — have already terminated their relationships and brand deals with the rapper.
Donda Sports also took a hit when the NBA’s Boston Celtics shooting guard Jaylen Brown and the NFL’s L.A. Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald cut ties with the organization, taking to Twitter to condemn Ye’s hurtful language.
Kanye West longtime engineer Andrew Dawson is promising to donate his royalties for good, following West’s recent espousal of hate speech.
In an Instagram post Tuesday (Oct. 25), Dawson pledged to make donations from his royalties to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as Jewish and Civil Rights organizations.
“I have a resume I am proud of that represents decades of supporting the voices, visions, and creativity of talented artists,” Dawson wrote. “However, recent events compel me to be a supporter of more important voices at this time.”
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According to Dawson’s post, he has already made two donations.
While Dawson did not name West as the specific reason for the donations, the organization’s mentioned all support groups that West has recently targeted with hate speech. In recent weeks, West has worn a shirt that read “White Lives Matter” and made numerous antisemitic comments, which has led brands like Balenciaga, Gap and Adidas to distance themselves from the artist and entrepreneur.
Management for Dawson declined to comment further on the post.
Dawson has worked as West’s primary engineer for nearly two decades, beginning with West’s debut studio album, The College Dropout, in 2003. He has worked on eight of West’s albums, securing Grammy wins for 2005’s Late Registration, 2007’s Graduation and 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Dawson’s last credited work with West was the song “Heaven and Hell” off 2021’s Donda.
Record producer Mike Dean — who has also worked with West since The College Dropout — reposted Dawson’s note and commented on the image saying, “Careful tho. Those royalties will shrink. Sucks. He’s hurting all his collaborators too.”
Over the course of his career, Dawson has worked as an engineer, producer, mixer and co-writer on many popular albums. He has worked with Destiny’s Child, Common, John Legend, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Beyonce, Teyana Taylor, Childish Gambino and Linkin Park, among others.
This week alone, West was also dropped by his agency CAA and producer MRC scrapped a documentary on the rapper.
Check out Dawson’s post below.
Vivica A. Fox is stepping into the conversation surrounding Kanye West‘s dangerous anti-Semitic and racist outbursts recently.
Fox previously shared criticism over Ye’s comments surrounding the death of George Floyd in a since-deleted Drink Champs interview, during which the rapper said that Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose rather than at the hands of police. The late Floyd’s family announced that they would be filing a $250 million lawsuit against him for defamatory comments.
“Yo, Kanye, f— you and I mean that with everything inside of me” the actress said on an episode of Fox Soul’s Cocktails With Queen.
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In a new interview with ET, Fox said, “We’ve been trying to move forward with love and with prayer, and we’ve literally been finding out that that isn’t working.”
She added, “So I thought maybe a little extra tough love in there, that maybe that’s what Kanye is missing. I believe more than anything else, he’s missing his mother — somebody that would say, ‘Now, boy, you done went too far.’”
“Kanye, if I can say this to you, my brother — if you need help, don’t be afraid to go get it,” Fox said. “Please do, because it’s just — don’t ruin your legacy like this. You have four beautiful children that don’t need to see Daddy’s legacy absolutely destroyed like that.”
Ye went on an anti-Semitic rant on social media earlier this month. After posting that he was about to go “[defcon] 3” on “Jewish people” over the weekend of Oct. 8, he was temporarily restricted from using both Instagram and Twitter.
West’s anti-Semitic comments have led to at least one hate incident, according to images collected by antidiscrimination organizations. In Los Angeles on Saturday, demonstrators made Nazi salutes gestures after they unfurled a large overpass banner that read, “Kanye is right about the Jews.”
MRC announced on Monday (Oct. 24) that it will not release a finished documentary on Kanye West following his recent spate of antisemitic comments.
“This morning, after discussion with our filmmakers and distribution partners, we made the decision not to proceed with any distribution for our recently completed documentary about Kanye West,” CEO Modi Wiczyk, CEO Asif Satchu, and COO Scott Tenley wrote in a joint statement sent to the media. “We cannot support any content that amplifies his platform.”
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“Kanye is a producer and sampler of music,” MRC’s leaders continued. “Last week he sampled and remixed a classic tune that has charted for over 3,000 years — the lie that Jews are evil and conspire to control the world for their own gain… Kanye has now helped mainstream it in the modern era.”
The decision made by MRC — Billboard‘s former publisher — follows a Financial Times op-ed published by Ari Emanuel, CEO of Endeavor, last week that urged West’s various business partners to halt work with him. “Those who continue to do business with West are giving his misguided hate an audience,” Emanuel wrote. “There should be no tolerance anywhere for West’s anti-Semitism.”
Emanuel went on to note that “West is not just any person — he is a pop culture icon with millions of fans around the world. And among them are young people whose views are still being formed. This is why it is necessary for all of us to speak out. Hatred and anti-Semitism should have no place in our society, no matter how much money is at stake.”
On Sunday, Jeremy Zimmer, CEO of UTA, also sent a memo asking staff to “please support the boycott of Kanye West.” “Regrettably, anti-Semitism, racism and many forms of hate and intolerance are part of the fabric of society,” Zimmer wrote. “… Throughout history some have used their public platform to spew the plague out loud and spread the contagion to dangerous effect. Kanye is the latest to do so, and we’re seeing how his words embolden others to amplify their vile beliefs.”
In addition to announcing their decision to shelve the documentary on West, MRC’s leaders called on others to distance themselves from the star or condemn his statements. “The silence from leaders and corporations when it comes to Kanye or antisemitism in general is dismaying but not surprising,” their statement read. “Why is a group that has historically been brave and unreserved in its fight against antisemitism so quiet on Kanye?”
Read the full MRC memo below:
This morning, after discussion with our filmmakers and distribution partners, we made the decision not to proceed with any distribution for our recently completed documentary about Kanye West. We cannot support any content that amplifies his platform.
Kanye is a producer and sampler of music. Last week he sampled and remixed a classic tune that has charted for over 3000 years – the lie that Jews are evil and conspire to control the world for their own gain. This song was performed acapella in the time of the Pharaohs, Babylon and Rome, went acoustic with The Spanish Inquisition and Russia’s Pale of Settlement, and Hitler took the song electric. Kanye has now helped mainstream it in the modern era.
Lies are an important part of all discrimination, and this one is no different. When well crafted, they create the illusion that the action is just, that the bigot is “punching up” at the victim. It’s critical to antisemites, who must explain why they are attacking a people that comprise less than half of one percent of the world’s population. Not a fair fight, numbers wise. But if the Jews are ultra-powerful because of secret evil plots, well, the argument is, it must be fair and ok.
The silence from leaders and corporations when it comes to Kanye or antisemitism in general is dismaying but not surprising. What is new and sad, is the fear Jews have about speaking out in their own defense.
Why is a group that has historically been brave and unreserved in its fight against antisemitism so quiet on Kanye?
Because of the emergence of a second lie – one that is at the center of what we call Antisemitism 2.0. It is brilliantly crafted, fast becoming part of mainstream thinking, and puts Jews is a terrible philosophical corner. That lie goes as follows:
If you support Israel’s right to exist, you are a racist.If you are a Jew, you support Israel’s right to exist.Therefore, if you are Jewish, you are a racist.
As leaders of this company (a Jew, a Muslim, and a Christian), we feel duty bound to say to all of you this is a pernicious, terrible use of false logic. It marries very well with the first “punching up” lie that all Jews are connected by conspiracy. And it is working, because many Jews are scared to speak up in defense of their religion, or Israel, for fear of being labelled racists. It is no more true than saying that if you support Palestine’s right to exist, you must be an antisemite.
For proof of how quickly a protest of Israel’s policies can jump to antisemitism, look no further than last week’s outrage at Wellesley College. The school is a historical bastion of liberalism and civil rights. But last week its newspaper editorial board saw fit not only to condemn Israel, but actually publish a MAP of Jewish places of worship, organizations and business in the area so that they could be targeted for protest – or worse. This would not be shocking from Neo-Nazis, but Wellesley?
The three of us want to make our position on this very clear.• We support Palestine’s right to exist.• We support Israel’s right to exist.• Both nations represent a dream and an ideal for their peoples – one of safety, freedom, and prosperity.• Both ideals are worthy of protection, even though we have significant objections to the policies of the governments of both nations.• Objections to a nation’s government do not constitute grounds for discrimination against that nation’s citizens or supporters.• We uniformly reject any assertion that we, our colleagues, or anyone else is bigoted or racist based on their support for the sovereignty and existence of any country, all of which have flaws.
If you hear or encounter the perpetuation of these intolerances and falsehoods, please let us know. It is totally unacceptable. And to those who are afraid to use their voice, hopefully this encourages you to do so.
Asif, Modi, Scott
Three of Hollywood’s top agency chiefs are now calling on the entertainment industry to cut ties with Kanye West given the rapper and fashion mogul’s antisemitic rhetoric on multiple platforms and interviews.
On Sunday evening, UTA chief Jeremy Zimmer sent a companywide memo to staff titled “Rise of Anti Semitism and Hate,” writing that West’s comments’ “embolden others to amplify their vile beliefs.”
Zimmer made reference to a widely circulated Oct. 23 photo of a group of seven people who stood on a 405 freeway overpass in Los Angeles with signs that included “Kanye is right about the Jews,” as well as The Mapping Project, an anonymous effort that purported to show links between Jewish businesses in Massachusetts and “support for the colonization of Palestine.”
“Whether it’s signs on the 405 in Los Angeles, flyers on doorsteps, mapping Jewish businesses in Boston, or marching with hoods and crosses, all of these behaviors ignite the embers of bigotry, and they must not be tolerated,” Zimmer wrote.
The Beverly Hills-based agency CEO’s missive follows a similarly themed Oct. 19 column in the Financial Times by Ari Emanuel, who runs the entertainment and sports company Endeavor, which owns talent agency WME. “Those who continue to do business with West are giving his misguided hate an audience,” Emanuel wrote. “There should be no tolerance anywhere for West’s anti-Semitism.”
Emanuel added: “West is not just any person — he is a pop culture icon with millions of fans around the world. And among them are young people whose views are still being formed.”
Meanwhile, Gersh agency president Bob Gersh weighed in on Sunday, telling Variety, “People really need to hammer these companies in business with him to impress upon them how wrong it is to support somebody like this.”
Following an appearance at Paris Fashion Week in which West donned a “White Lives Matter” shirt on Oct. 3, he went to post a since-removed Oct. 8 tweet that called for “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” wrote posts on Instagram that were removed for violating content restrictions, made a stop on Fox News that included a controversial interview with Tucker Carlson (that later included unaired portions leaked to Vice News), taped an interview with the podcast Drink Champs (that was later removed from YouTube) and stopped for an interview on NewsNation with Chris Cuomo in which West said “I don’t believe in that term,” in reference to antisemitism.
Companies and partners that have business with West, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes to be at $2 billion, are under increasing pressure to cut ties with the rapper. Adidas, which has a distribution deal for West’s Yeezy shoe and fashion brand, stated earlier this month that it had placed its partnership “under review,” while French label Balenciaga cut ties on Oct. 21 and said it “no longer any relationship” with West.
In seeming response to having his tweets and Instagram posts restricted, West made a deal with the backers of a small social media platform called Parler. On Oct. 17, the company — which calls itself the “premier free speech social media app” — sent out a press release stating that it had agreed to sell itself to the artist. Parler’s CEO is George Farmer, the husband of conservative activist Candace Owens, who also donned the “White Lives Matter” shirt at Paris Fashion Week.
Read Zimmer’s full memo to UTA staff on THR.com