Kanye West
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For all the noise and hoopla he’s made in the previous years, Kanye West has been keeping an uncharacteristic low profile in this election cycle, which has a few people wondering, “Where in the world is Kanye West?” (besides walking everywhere with his wife, mostly).
Well, according to TMZ, Yeezy can now be found in Beverly Hills. Looking for a fresh start after selling his Malibu estate for $21 million, Yeezy dropped a whopping $35 million on a home in the gated community of Beverly Park North. Keep in mind that Kanye dropped $57 million on the beachfront Malibu mansion only to strip it down and attempt to turn it into a bomb shelter. Ultimately, that didn’t happen, and Ye ended up taking a $36 million loss on the sale.
Luckily for him, he’s still pretty rich. So dropping another $35 million on a new home isn’t a problem for him.
Per TMZ:
Kanye’s new crib comes with all the bells and whistles … including an entertainment pavilion connected to the main house and a pool area that looks straight out of a resort … with cascading waterfalls and separate pools for swimming laps or soaking, plus a pool house and a gazebo.
There’s also a paddle tennis court on the grounds.
Yeezy may have gotten a sweet deal here … because Honey co-founder George Ruan paid $44 million last week for a property in the same neighborhood.
What’s the chances he strips this one down too only to sell it for less than what he bought it at some point in the future? We’d say a little likely, but hey, that’s just us.
What do y’all think of Kanye splurging on a brand new home in Beverly Hills? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Lupe Fiasco has one of the more storied journeys in Hip-Hop, starting off in Chicago as an upstart MC to becoming one of the genre’s most respected lyricists. In a new interview, Lupe Fiasco shared why the Child Rebel Soldier, or CRS, supergroup with Kanye West and Pharrell Williams never took off.
Sitting down with Donwill of Tanya Morgan fame for his The Almanac of Rap series with Okayplayer, Lupe Fiasco shared details of his early days in Chicago, his travels in the music industry, and who he is as an artist today.
The CRS supergroup was one of many announced groups that caught the attention of Hip-Hop fans considering the acts involved. At the time of their forming in 2010, Kanye West and Pharrell Williams were buzzing acts and Lupe was still signed to Atlantic Records at the time.
In the chat, Lupe said that the idea for CRS started with him rapping over samples of songs made by the Radiohead band and recording a song with Skateboard P. Ye happened to hear the work and added that he wanted in on the track, prompting Williams to suggest they get together as a group.
Lupe says that Pharrell named him the “Child” of the group while Ye was the “Rebel” with the Virginia producer giving himself the “Soldier” tag. The trio did record the track “Don’t! Stop!” and the remix to N.E.R.D.’s “Everybody Nose” but that would be the end of it.
As the interview went on, Lupe, without naming names, said that one of the members, presumably Ye, “got rich and crazy” before trailing off into laughter.
The clip in question with Lupe Fiasco can be viewed below. Also, we’ve got the full The Almanac of Rap video as well.
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The recent rumors of Kanye West and Bianca Censori divorcing recently made headlines. Some say that this was a plot so Ye can divert the attention away from his ex-assistant suing him for assault.
As spotted on Page Six, an unnamed individual is claiming that the speculation of the celebrity couple parting ways is actually fake news. An alleged insider told Daily Mail that the hearsay was concocted by Kanye and his team. “Kanye is concerned that his new lawsuit will drag him down to Diddy’s level and he has been speaking to his legal reps,” the tipster said. “He is paying attention to what is going on with Diddy and some believe that the publicity stunt was a way of overshadowing the details of the harrowing lawsuit.”
Kanye West’s former assistant Lauren Pisciotta says she was drugged and taken advantage of by her former boss during a recording session at a studio where Diddy was present. She claims she was offered a beverage “laced with an unidentified drug.” She then says she felt “disoriented” and in “less control of her body and speech.” She woke up the next morning with very little memory of the day prior but says Kanye later admitted to her that the two had hooked up.
“Still to that day, up until that conversation and revelations of true facts and actions taken that night, Plaintiff did not know or think she was sexually assaulted that night, as Plaintiff only thought she was roofied by a studio assistant, likely embarrassed herself and then took the blame,” the lawsuit reads. While Pisciotta says Diddy was at the recording session, he is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Back in June, the rapper’s lawyers responded to the lawsuit calling it baseless. Kanye West and Bianca Censori have been married since 2022.
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This past Summer, Kanye West was slapped with a lawsuit by his former assistant, Lauren Pisciotta, for sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior. Now, Pisciotta has added another eyebrow-raising accusation to her original suit.
According to PEOPLE, Lauren Pisciotta has amended her original lawsuit and is now alleging that Kanye West once drugged her during a studio session in Santa Monica, Calif., with none other than Diddy, and proceeded to sexually assault her in said session. The amendment comes weeks after it was said that Diddy would serve his guests laced drinks before allegedly sexually abusing his victims. We’re not sure if the news jogged her memory or what, but Pisciotta is claiming that Ye and Diddy preyed on her before she ultimately ended up working for Kanye in 2021.
Though Pisciotta says Diddy was a part of the studio session where everyone was basically forced to drink up if they “wanted to stay,” she doesn’t accuse the embattled music icon of any wrongdoing.
PEOPLE reports:
The filing further alleges that Pisciotta’s drink — allegedly served to her by a studio assistant at the request of West — was “laced with an unidentifiable drug,” before she felt disoriented after “a few small sips.”
“As plaintiff began to slip into an altered and heavily impaired state, she felt less in control of her body and speech, and that is where plaintiff’s memories of that night escape her,” the complaint reads.
According to the filing, Pisciotta woke up the following day “feeling physically ill and confused” and felt “immense and embarrassment” for not being able to recall what happened after she had the drink, according to the filing.
For years, West’s former assistant thought she got roofied and made a fool of herself at a work event. Much later — after West hired Pisciotta to serve as an assistant and Chief of Staff and do A&R for him — she says the rapper allegedly brought up the night in question for the first time. During the conversation, West told Pisciotta that they “did kind of hook up a little one time,” referring to the evening in the Santa Monica studio where the alleged assault took place.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Pisciotta also recalled how Kanye West basically barged into her hotel room at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco at 6 a.m. claiming that he needed to use her shower as his was “out of order.” Once he was in Kanye allegedly “dropped” his towel and attempted to “forcefully thrust his naked body onto and penis into Plaintiff’s face” and “ignored her pleas to stop.” Per the complaint, West “swiftly left” after saying “sorry” and “went about his day as normal.”
This is the same guy who dropped an album named Jesus Is King?? Christ on crutches!
A lawyer for Kanye West did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment about the story.
What do y’all think about this latest development in Lauren Pisciotta’s lawsuit against Kanye West? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Source: Lyvans Boolaky / Getty / Kanye West
Kanye West is a very paranoid guy who allegedly dabbles in conspiracy theory land.
Spotted on Variety, a former “director of intelligence” claims that Ye, the artist formally known as Kanye West, sued his former boss on Thursday, claiming the rapper gave him the job of investigating his ex-ex-wife, Kim Kardashian’s family of alleged sex trafficking.
The man, who goes by the name John Doe, also claims that he had to hire private investigators to tail his soon-to-be ex-wife, allegedly Bianca Censori, while she was visiting her family in Australia.
The unnamed former director of intelligence also says that the “Jesus Walks” crafter “blew up” at him after he shared a report of alleged child abuse going on at West’s not-shuttered school, the Donda Academy, with leaders.
“You’re fucking dead to me!” West allegedly said and then played a “recording of scary voices” threatening to inflict harm upon him.
More Details On The Lawsuit Per Variety:
The lawsuit alleges retaliation and infliction of emotional distress. The man claims that the experience affected his mental health, triggering his PTSD from his military service and causing panic attacks and anxiety. He also claims he is owed unpaid wages from the last several pay periods of his employment.
“John Doe was also tasked by Ye with investigating the Kardashian family and supposed various criminal links Ye believed they had with criminal enterprises, including alleged sex trafficking,” the lawsuit states.
According to the suit, the plaintiff would also handle various other problems that came up, such as seeking to retrieve items that were lost or stolen.
“It was common for Ye to lose expensive cars or fail to pay people for services rendered at Ye’s direction,” the suit states.
John Doe alleges he was hired in December 2022 by West to be his “deputy campaign director and was later moved to director of intelligence. According to the complaint, his job in the summer of 2023 was “brainstorming ideas to keep Ye in the news.”
If that was his job, he did a fine job because Ye stayed in the news.
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CLOSE
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Grand opening, grand closing. Kanye West and his wife Bianca Censori are reportedly on the way to getting a divorce.
TMZ reports that the couple is calling it quits after a smooth, almost 2 years of marriage. They were married in December 2022 (but didn’t let the world know for about a month), allegedly. According to their source, they broke up a few weeks, and Censori, and architect by trade, high-tailed down to Australia to spend time with her family.
In recent weeks, Kanye West had been spotted out and about town—particularly while he was galavanting about Tokyo—but without Censori by his side.
Prior to that, you couldn’t see one without the other, with Kanye rocking his sometimes questionable fits and the relatively voluptuous Censori often rocking clothes that left little to the imagination. As you might know, Ye was previously married to Kim Kardashian, with whom he shares four children.
We assembled some photos of Kanye and Bianca during happier times, either in Los Angeles or in Europse, in the gallery. You care.
1. Celebrity Sightings In Los Angeles – May 13, 2023
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LOS ANGELES, CA – MAY 13: Kanye West and Bianca Censori are seen on May 13, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
2. Prototypes: Front Row – Paris Fashion Week – Menswear Spring/Summer 2025
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PARIS, FRANCE – JUNE 19: (L-R) Bianca Censori and Kanye West attend the Prototypes Menswear Spring/Summer 2025 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 19, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Lyvans Boolaky/Getty Images) vertical,color image,photography,celebrities,people,france,arts culture and entertainment,attending,paris – france,three people,18-19 years,fashion,fashion show,spring summer collection,paris fashion week,front row,june,menswear,paris menswear fashion week,ye – musician,2025,2024,bianca censori
3. Marni – Front Row – Milan Fashion Week – Womenswear Fall/Winter 2024-2025
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MILAN, ITALY – FEBRUARY 23: Kanye West and Bianca Censori attends the Marni fashion show during the Milan Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2024-2025 on February 23, 2024 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Arnold Jerocki/Getty Images)
4. Kanye West and Bianca Censori Arrive In Tokyo
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NARITA, JAPAN – JUNE 09: Bianca Censori and Kanye West are seen upon arrival at Narita International Airport on June 09, 2024 in Narita, Japan. (Photo by Jun Sato/WireImage)
5. Prototypes: Front Row – Paris Fashion Week – Menswear Spring/Summer 2025
Source:Getty
PARIS, FRANCE – JUNE 19: (L-R) Kanye West and Bianca Censori attend the Prototypes Menswear Spring/Summer 2025 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 19, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Peter White/Getty Images)
6. Prototypes: Front Row – Paris Fashion Week – Menswear Spring/Summer 2025
Source:Getty
PARIS, FRANCE – JUNE 19: (L-R) Kanye West and Bianca Censori attend the Prototypes Menswear Spring/Summer 2025 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 19, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Lyvans Boolaky/Getty Images)
7. Celebrity Sightings In Paris – February 28, 2024
Source:Getty
PARIS, FRANCE – FEBRUARY 28: Kanye West and Bianca Censori are seen leaving their hotel on February 28, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by MEGA/GC Images)
8. FC Internazionale v Atletico Madrid: Round of 16 First Leg – UEFA Champions League 2023/24
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MILAN, ITALY – FEBRUARY 20: Bianca Censori and Kanye West are seen during the UEFA Champions League 2023/24 round of 16 first leg match between FC Internazionale and Atletico Madrid at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on February 20, 2024 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Mattia Ozbot – Inter/Inter via Getty Images)
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Kanye West has been surprisingly quiet during this election year and while he seems to be keeping to himself as of late, the polarizing artist is making some noise thanks to a surprising announcement he made at a recent show in China. A new album called Bully.
Over the weekend, news broke that Yeezy is prepping to drop a brand new album. He told a crowd at the Wuyuan River Stadium in Haikou, China, that “I got a new album coming out.”
With cheers erupting at the big reveal, Ye continued, “The album is called Bully, and this song is called “Beauty And The Beast.” Going into a soft and smooth melody, Kanye gets into his 808s & Heartbreak mode and begins singing, “It’s been a long time coming/fresh new ties, I’m still runnin’/It’s a few things I’m overcoming…”
We’re not gonna lie, the song sounds pretty good.
With this being Kanye’s first solo album in a while, we wonder if he’ll once again try to get this project up and running exclusively on the ill-fated Stem Player that seemingly crashed and burned just a few years ago.
Interestingly enough, HipHopNMore reports that Ye’s long-time collaborator, Mike Dean, left a comment saying that the track is actually a leftover from Ye’s 2022 album, Donda.
Still, pretty good song.
Check out Kanye’s announcement and “new” song below, and let us know if you’re looking forward to Bully in the comments section.
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Candace Owens shared that her YouTube channel has been suspended due to antisemitic comments made by Ye aka Kanye West last month.
On Monday (September 9), conservative media personality Candace Owens shared that YouTube shut down her channel for seven days. She stated that an appearance by Ye aka Kanye West on her show in August was the reason for it. “There will be no show today, or at all this week. That’s because @YouTube has issued me a strike and a one-week suspension for my sit-down with Kanye. They also removed the interview as “hate speech”, as it was mass reported by Zionists. Their tactics never change,” she wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. She also shared screenshots of the messages she received from YouTube.
https://twitter.com/RealCandaceO/status/1833550415171932214
The comment in question was Ye claiming that Jewish people control the media.” Owens felt that a recent discussion that she had with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on Piers Morgan’s show led to the suspension and demonetization of her channel. The channel currently has 2.4 million followers. “The world knows why I am being targeted and frankly, I have never felt more confident that I am the right person for this to happen,” she added in another post on X.
“Thus far, I have had zero strikes on my @YouTubeCreators account,” she said, continuing: “I have now been inundated with 3 back-to-back content hits within minutes, plus an email that I am now fully demonetized. We all know exactly who is behind this and why.” The suspension is a blow to Owens, who was fired by The Daily Wire after a public feud with co-founder Ben Shapiro over Israel and antisemitism.
A spokesperson for YouTube confirmed the suspension to the New York Post. “We’ve suspended channels associated with Candace Owens from the YouTube Partner Program following repeated violations of our policies, including our Advertiser-Friendly Guidelines and Community Guidelines,” Jack Malon said in a statement. The statement went on to say that she would no longer be able to make money from the platform, but creators would be able to reapply in 90 days.
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Source: Brad Barket / Getty / Steven Smith / Kanye West
If Kanye West hopes to continue dropping hot footwear, he will be doing so without his longtime collaborator and YZY designer Steven Smith.
Steven Smith is letting the chopper spray on his former boss, Kanye West after the embattled multihyphenate fired him. Speaking with Fast Company, Smith says, “He’s lost his mind. The whole of Yeezy is circling the drain, and this is just part of it. He has surrounded himself with toxic, C-grade losers.”
Ouch.
Smith’s comments are damming because he was described by the website as a “sensitive defender of Ye and, in particular, the treatment of his mental health.”
Now, not so much.
West gave Smith the boot in August and showed how petty he was by blocking Smith on Instagram. Smith has worked with the problematic rapper since 2016 and was one of the instrumental figures in the company’s success following the deal with adidas, which has since been terminated.
Despite losing his gig with YZY, Smith remains optimistic about his future, saying on the website, “I’m in a very happy place with it all. I will certainly be a priceless asset to whoever I work with next. It’s all his loss and the result of his foolishness.”
Smith did reveal the reasoning for his termination, but, according to Fast Company, “reached a breaking point” afterword on the street said the “saved” rapper wanted to launch his own porn company but scrapped the idea.
Bruh.
Other Wild Allegations
Smith is just the latest former high-profile employee to drop some serious but wild allegations against the “Monster” crafter.
West’s former chief of staff and far-right figure Milo Yiannopoulos claimed in an affidavit that the Chicago rapper is addicted to nitrous oxide thanks to celebrity dentist Thomas Connelly, who got Ye hooked on the poisonous gas.
According to Yiannopoulos, West spends up to $50,000 per month on nitrous oxide and underwent scans proving that he has suffered permanent brain damage from his abuse of the poisonous gas.
Connelly has denied the allegations, but in a video he sent to troubled boxer Robert Garcia, he can be seen using an oxygen mask, so he’s making it hard to beat the allegations.
When Nico Baran was 10, he discovered the popular digital audio workstation FL Studio during a class presentation and started making dance tracks. “That helped me build up my skills for making loops,” says Baran, who soon transitioned to R&B and trap productions.
Seven years later, in 2020, the Houston-born, Madrid-based producer started DM’ing loops to members of the producer collective and record label Internet Money. One member, oktanner, played the beats for CEO Taz Taylor, who brought Baran onto the team that year. Taylor asked Baran to send him ideas ahead of his session with The Kid LAROI, which led to Baran scoring his first major placement on LAROI’s debut mixtape, F*ck Love, co-writing and co-producing “Tragic” featuring YoungBoy Never Broke Again.
He has since compiled a genre-spanning résumé — and an impressive original loop library, which he often shares as sounds on TikTok — producing songs for rappers like Lil Tecca, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Shy Glizzy, as well as Latin artists like Bad Bunny with Young Miko, Eladio Carrión and Fuerza Regida. In June, when Baran posted a now-viral snippet titled “Love Is Gone” — a moody instrumental that has since amassed 1.8 million TikTok plays and 4.3 million official on-demand global streams, according to Luminate — Drake caught wind of the hype. “He reached out to me through Instagram,” Baran says. “I’m still sending him stuff to this day.”
Trending on Billboard
Wallace Joseph, SVP of A&R at Warner Chappell Music, calls the producer a “genius,” saying his talent is “purely natural. What he’s doing is next level; whether he’s playing keyboards, producing, or anything else, everything he touches goes viral.”
Ahead, Baran is hoping to make time for his own music as well, saying he “definitely” wants to release an album of his own — “kind of like Metro Boomin and DJ Khaled,” he says, “where I can bring artists into my own sound.”
¥$ (with Lil Wayne), “Lifestyle”
Last November, Baran wrote, “POV: Ty Dolla $ign & Kanye need beats for their next album,” over a TikTok featuring one of his loops. In December, when Ye previewed “Lifestyle” during an Instagram Live filmed at a private Las Vegas party teasing Vultures 2 (despite Vultures 1 not having dropped), Baran noticed a familiar beat: The song sampled “Love Is Gone.” As Baran recalls, “People were sending me screen recordings through Instagram like, ‘Kanye sampled you!’ ” One of the song’s producers, Australian duo FNZ, had sent Ty “Love Is Gone.” Baran says, “He liked it a lot. He showed it to Kanye, and Kanye loved it. It still feels unbelievable.”
Ice Spice & Central Cee, “Did It First”
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In 2023, songwriter-producer Lily Kaplan sent Baran a Dropbox link and asked him to tinker with her vocal tracks. He built a loop around one of them by chopping up the line “Baby, do you understand?” and adding synths before sending it to RIOTUSA, Ice Spice’s go-to producer. RIOT ultimately used it for Ice and Central Cee’s “Did It First,” one of the buzzier singles from her debut album, Y2K!, that dropped in July. “Ice Spice really loved that one loop, and it kind of went crazy,” says Baran of the track, which hit No. 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
The Kid LAROI, TBA
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Four years after “Tragic,” one of LAROI’s producers reached out to Baran about sampling a loop that he had posted on TikTok to use on a track from the Australian artist’s forthcoming second album. (His debut, The First Time, arrived last November.) “That’s mainly what I’m focusing on right now,” Baran reveals. “I’m sending a lot of ideas to LAROI’s producers. Aside from that one song, hopefully more [will] come about.”
A version of this article originally appeared in the August 31, 2024 issue of Billboard.