Kanye West
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On Wednesday around midnight, a new song showed up on RapCaviar, Spotify‘s premier hip-hop playlist: “All Falls Down,” Kanye West’s second hit single ever, which came out almost 20 years ago. While RapCaviar is mostly focused on new releases, it does occasionally feature throwbacks. Still, the addition felt notable, because a new release from West and Ty Dolla $ign is expected to arrive at midnight tonight and executives around the music industry are curious how streaming service gatekeepers will respond.
Will they support the renowned artist who now goes by Ye, despite the fact that his repeated antisemitism and conservative trolling has caused a widespread backlash, leading most of his prominent business partners to sever ties since 2022? Or will they just ignore the new album all together?
“It’s going to be complicated,” says one former Spotify employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “There’s going to be a difference of opinion within those places on how to handle it. Some people in leadership positions will want to be harsh on Kanye for the nasty antisemitic things he has said. There will also be another side, the hip-hop teams, who will say, ‘No, it’s Kanye, people say crazy shit all the time, plus he apologized. We don’t care. We’re playlisting because it’s Kanye.’”
A digital marketer who helps artists with streaming strategy was more skeptical. “Streaming services didn’t support ‘Vultures’ [Ye’s previous song], so I would be very shocked” if they support the rest of the album, he says. “Even though Ye did his apology, it felt like that came and went so fast.”
Reps for Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music did not respond to a request for comment.
Streaming services mostly avoid trying to wade into moral debates about artists’ character. One exception came when Spotify announced a new policy in 2018, writing on its blog that “in some circumstances, when an artist or creator does something that is especially harmful or hateful (for example, violence against children and sexual violence), it may affect the ways we work with or support that artist or creator.”
The backlash against this announcement was swift. Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, CEO of Top Dawg Entertainment, told Billboard, “I don’t think it’s right for artists to be censored.” Others felt similarly, and a few weeks later, Spotify said “we are moving away from implementing a policy around artist conduct.”
That said, two former employees say Spotify still occasionally flexes its muscles around playlisting. When Megan Thee Stallion was shot by Tory Lanez in 2020, “his songs weren’t getting in any playlists after that,” according to a former employee. (Lanez was found guilty in court in December 2022.)
But Ye is not on trial, and he also has more than 140 Hot 100 hits to date. Many of these are still in regular rotation: His catalog has earned more than 480 million on-demand streams already this year in the U.S., according to Luminate.
Even so, his newest song sank like a stone. When Ye and Ty Dolla $ign released “Vultures” in November, it failed to crack the Hot 100, and it has amassed only around 33 million Spotify streams, a flop by Ye’s high-flying standards. (He released a video for the track “Talking/Once Again” with Ty earlier this week, but it is not yet available on streaming services.)
Two sources familiar with Ye’s search for a distribution deal say several streaming services signaled to them that they were unlikely to support new music from the star due to widespread outrage over his antisemitic comments. “For an artist as big as Kanye to release a new track and receive no major editorial placements is quite an outlier,” notes Nicki Camberg, a data journalist at the company Chartmetric, which tracks data on playlisting, social media, and streaming for artists. (“Vultures” was released through Label Engine, a distribution company owned by Create Music Group, according to identification information in YouTube’s Content Management System.)
“Vultures” has fared slightly better on the airwaves than it has on streaming services. The song has received airplay from around 30 stations, according to Mediabase. Two stations in Ye’s hometown of Chicago played the song the day it came out, and they’ve played it far more than anyone else: 199 spins so far in 2024 from WGCI and 181 from WPWX. The station that played “Vultures” third most this year, KVEG in Las Vegas, has played it 50 times.
Aside from the iHeart-owned WGCI, it’s noticeable that the stations playing “Vultures” are mostly owned by smaller radio companies, not the behemoths like iHeart, Audacy and Sirius. The track has received 2,144 spins overall, with 6.187 million audience impressions.
In the mid-2010s, radio was eclipsed by streaming services as the most important driver of listening behavior. Now a similar thing has happened to streaming services: Young fans are increasingly likely to discover music on short-form video platforms like TikTok. (Though they can’t find Universal Music Group songs there at the moment.) As a result, executives told Billboard in 2022 that “Spotify and Apple editorial playlists don’t have as much punch” as they used to.
Even on an earnings call on Thursday (Feb. 8), Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl noted that “the data discovery and consumption trends” in music “are driven by the algorithms of the larger platforms and users sharing playlists with each other” — not playlists controlled by the various platforms. “The guys who do playlists had a lot of power four or five years ago,” says one longtime A&R. “Now their power is dwindling, because it doesn’t matter what they say. The kids choose at the end of the day.”
This could work to Ye’s advantage. If he’s able to luck into a viral moment, it won’t matter much whether he’s put on editorial playlists initially; listeners will find the music and play it, and the audience response will impact streaming services.
So far, “Vultures” hasn’t generated this kind of enthusiasm. “From a fan perspective, if it was going crazy and everyone was talking about it, that would push it,” the digital marketer says. “But I haven’t seen that anywhere.”
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Ye aka Kanye West is claiming that he’s struggling to book venues for his concerts, leading him to ask for help in a social media post.
According to Page Six, controversial rapper Kanye West is claiming that he’s facing difficulties in booking venues, to the point where he’s implying that his antisemitic actions may have something to do with it. West made his claims in a now-deleted video that he posted to his Instagram account Tuesday (Feb. 6), with a lisp to his voice – potentially due to the new titanium fronts he’s been sporting for the past few weeks.
“We just sold out the United Center in 7 minutes, and I just want to express to everybody out there to see if it’s anyone that can help with this. It’s the only arena that I had access to in the past year,” Ye began. “And when I call, people say there are no avails for me and you know why that is,” he added, alluding to the numerous episodes of antisemitic comments and outlandish behavior coming from him over the past two years.
“So if there’s anybody out there that can help with this, please do.” West would then follow up that video with another post, where he claimed that his situation was akin to that of Elvis Presley. “I have not been able to perform in a year,” he wrote in the also-deleted post. “Feels like the Elvis Presley movie.”
Six hours after those posts were made, the 46-year-old artist claimed that he had been receiving numerous offers to perform at venues all over the world, sharing the list he received via texts and screenshots of arena dates for cities including New York, Toronto and Los Angeles in addition to Chicago. West would later make a post on his Instagram Stories writing, “Please reach out to Cara Lewis Group for all bookings.” The Cara Lewis Group is a New York-based entertainment representation group that has Travis Scott and Eminem on its roster.
His past behavior has made concert promoters leery with one unnamed source saying as much to Rolling Stone in 2022: “Whether or not it’s intended, by booking Kanye at this point in time, you’re endorsing his words … He needs to walk away from what he said before most venues would work with him.” West would issue an apology to the Jewish community in Hebrew on his Instagram page at the outset of the year.
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Kanye West tends to say a whole lot of antisemitic statements, consistently. Nevertheless, Bill Maher still interviewed the controversial multihyphenate, but the host now says he isn’t releasing the podcast because, wait for it…he says Kanye West is antisemitic.
TMZ is reporting that Maher sat down with West for a two-hour podcast interview. However, Maher says the Ye episode of his Club Random podcast will never see the light of day due to the “Flashing Lights” rapper’s acerbic views of the Jewish community.
“I thought it was going to be a learning moment. We were here for two hours. By the way, we had an amazing, fun time,” Maher told TMZ. “He’s a very charming antisemite. And by the way, he’s not the only one in America who feels that way. It’s not like the Jews are universally loved except for Kanye West, okay?”
And is Maher choosing not to air due to his integrity or for fear of what advertisers might say?
Anyway, TMZ has a whole episode on West called TMZ Investigates Kanye West: Unhinged But Unstoppable, which is backed by Fox, because of course. Not condoning Yeezy’s behavior, but TMZ seems big mad Ye has not been “canceled” in the traditional sense and is trying to get to the bottom of why.
Mind you, TMZ has surely made a financial killing by covering all Kanye West-related antics and shenanigans. Remember, it was on TMZ where West said his infamous “slavery sounds like a choice” comment.
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As for Maher, he offered up more tea—that wasn’t exactly shocking to anyone who has been paying attention—about West. Here’s what Maher said about why West’s antisemitic rhetoric is dangerous: “The problem, I think, is that he appeals mostly…of course he’s a rock star…to young people. They don’t know much and they surely don’t know much about the Middle East or Jews. So the combination of Kanye out there…I feel like he sort of like was helpful for spreading the fertilizer, and I do mean fertilizer, for this idea that Israel and the Jews are like the worst people in the world.”
Ye did apologize recently, but no one really believed him, basically.
The full episode of TMZ Investigates Kanye West: Unhinged But Unstoppable, which features commentary from Angela Yee, the Game, Toure and more, can be streamed on Hulu.
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For the past few weeks, Kanye West has been under fire for seemingly using his wife, Bianca Censori as a thirst trap for his own personal gain. And it seems like it may be getting to him as he took his frustration out on a photographer.
TMZ is reporting that Ye, also known as Kanye West, snapped at a photographer for TMZ while in Los Angeles where he was making his way to Charlie Wilson’s Walk of Fame ceremony.
After she asked him about reports about his “controlling” methods when it comes to his wife, Ye snapped and snatched the photographer’s camera before “lecturing” her about how he’s a “human being” at the end of the day.
Per TMZ:
We’ll admit … it’s not the most subtle opening question, and perhaps unartfully phrased … as we asked if Bianca had “free will.” That immediately set Kanye off, he snatched her phone and started verbally dressing her down.
What follows is a good 3-plus minutes of Ye berating our photog and grilling her about her question — which he seems to have thought was totally off-limits and wildly disrespectful.
Poor wording aside … Bianca’s perceived freedom in her marriage has been a much-reported topic, so it’s a fair question.
Still, it’s clearly one that triggers Kanye, and as you can hear from this tirade, he thinks it’s disrespectful to raise the issue “to come ask a grown-ass super-hero!!!”
Interestingly enough, Kanye did offer to employ said photographer at twice the pay she gets at TMZ. We’re not gonna lie, we might’ve slipped him a resume just to see if he was serious about the pay because money talks, even if it is coming from a man who thinks he’s spreading the gospel from God himself.
What do y’all think about Kanye West, the Bianca Censori quip, and his latest outburst? Is he losing it or is it what you’d expect from him? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Photo: Getty
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Kanye West is gearing up to drop his collaborative project with Ty Dolla $ign, Vultures, in the next month and fans around the world are anticipating the Chicago superstar’s audio return. Ye shared a new trailer for Vultures which also revealed that the project will be released over three volumes.
Kanye West shared the new trailer for Vultures via his Instagram page, and it features a series of macabre images and shots of what can assumed to be Ye and Ty Dolla $ign although their faces appeared to be obscured. Directed by Canadian filmmaker Jon Forman, the trailer certainly captures West’s flair for imagery that will catch the eye and stir the soul.
The album was set to be released on Jan. 12 following a previous November release of the title track. The background song is once again the title track with slight tweaks and a rap feature from Lil Durk. The project will reportedly also get features from Chris Brown, Charlie Wilson, Lil Baby, Freddie Gibbs, Playboy Carti, Quavo, Future, Lil Wayne, and more.
The end of the trailer revealed the release dates for the first edition of Vultures which will make its debut on Feb. 9, with the second edition happening on March 8, and the third in the trio releasing on April 5.
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Photo: KZLLC/Bauer-Griffin / Getty
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Ye aka Kanye West is stoking more outrage as a new photo of him and JPEGMAFIA shows the rapper sporting a t-shirt with the image of a notorious neo-Nazi and murderer.
Last Friday (January 19), photos of the rapper and producer JPEGMAFIA and Kanye West caught the web by surprise. Posted to his Instagram account with the caption “can’t talk right now, doing hot girl s—t,” the pictures showed the duo posing together with West sporting a new set of titanium dental grills presumably at work on new music. But West’s t-shirt caught the attention of metal fans who immediately identified the artist as Burzum, a Norwegian black metal band fronted by Varg Vikernes, a notorious pagan neo-Nazi.
The revelation got worse as fans saw that the proposed artwork for his upcoming Vultures album had similarities to the artwork on Burzum’s self-titled album from 1992. The photos caused dismay to fans of JPEGMAFIA, who had lyrics calling Burzum out for his racism on his “ALL CAPS NO SPACES” track from his album Black Ben Carson. He also had called West out on X, formerly Twitter in a since-deleted rant earlier that week. “[You] got 27 n**gas tweaking hi-hats just to make some mid [music]. Talk to a real scientist, brother,” he wrote.
Vikernes openly supported Nazism from the 1990s and would be convicted and imprisoned for murdering the guitarist of another band, Mayhem in August 1993 as well as for burning down three churches. Vikernes would serve 21 years before gaining parole in 2009, after which he and his wife moved to France. The couple would be arrested on suspicion of plotting a massacre in 2013 and a year later, Vikernes was found guilty of inciting racial hatred online against Jews and Muslims.
The photos come after Kanye West started the year out by posting an apology to Jewish people in Hebrew on his Instagram page, which was met with skepticism considering that he had been performing songs from Vultures with antisemitic lyrics. ‘There will never be a redemption arc for Kanye West, period. What will he try next? Another apology in Hebrew?’,” said Liora Rez, executive director of the StopAntisemitism organization.
As for Vikernes, when alerted to West’s attire on social media, he responded: “I know very little about him or what he says or does, and I kind of have very little incentive to ‘find out.’ it is better to spend time on something more fruitful.”
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Source: Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin / Getty / Kanye West / Bianca Censori
Kanye West continues to flaunt his wife Bianca Censori’s goodies to us, and now some of his fans are worried.
Regarding his wife, Ye does not leave much to the imagination. Recently, the problematic Chicago rapper has been sharing risqué photos of Censori, which is confusing the hell out of his fans.
West, who loves to galavant around in leggings and sneaker socks, giving real cult leader vibes, dropped new photos of his wife rocking nothing but a thong one-piece, leather gimp mask, and boots, probably from his awful collection.
In one photo showing off Censori’s cheeks, Ye wrote in the caption, “Cream of wheat.”
Bianca, Blink If You Need Help
While his fans don’t see anything wrong with his behavior or how he chooses to show his wife to the world, there are some in the comment section who are genuinely worried about Censori.
“What’s really sad is that this lady looks like she is being trafficked. She looks like she’s being ordered to do these things. She doesn’t appear to be happy at all. She’s never smiling or even smizing in none of her photos. Her eyes are telling us the story, but we are not listening. He clearly doesn’t honor her, because if he did, he wouldn’t want 2 million men gawking at his wife. It’s one thing to be proud of and think that your wife is all of that and a big bag of chips, but it’s another thing to parade her around as if she’s a circus attraction. I’m saddened for her,” one comment read.
Another commenter asked, “Why should u want to post ur wife in this fashion bro?”
“Gurl blink if you need help, say angel throw up the middle finger! Say something in gibberish! SOS, whatever, just let us know, boo!” another commenter said.
Are They Exhibitionists?
We have no clue what’s going on with the couple, but maybe they are exploring exhibitionism. Not too long, West got caught with his pants down, getting his mic rocked during a private boat ride in Italy.
Just recently, TMZ spotted the couple wearing raincoats. Censori’s was see-through, and she was only sporting boots, some underwear, and no bra.
BRUH.
He most recently directed the paparazzi on how to shoot him and his wife as they walked through a parking lot. LOL
Things will only get weirder as Ye gears up to finally drop his often-delayed Ty Dolla $ign project Vultures, which he recently shared a bizarre trailer for.
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An analyst on MSNBC compared Donald Trump’s behavior in his defamation case to Kanye West’s lashing out against Taylor Swift.
On Thursday afternoon (January 18), the court was dismissed for the third day of the defamation trial brought by writer E. Jean Carroll against former President Donald Trump. The day saw Carroll take the stand and detail exactly how Trump has consistently attacked her character after she sued him for sexual assault. The treatment that she received at the hands of Trump and his legal team struck a familiar chord with MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin.
Rubin began by writing in a post on X, formerly Twitter that “today’s theme — other than Judge Lew Kaplan’s increasingly acerbic handling of objections — owes more to Kanye than T. Swift, to this Swiftie’s chagrin.”
The lawyer elaborated on her theory in subsequent tweets based on the cross-examination of Northwestern University professor Ashlee Humphreys by Trump lawyer Michael Maddio. Maddio argued that Carroll asking for $10 million in damages (supported by Humphreys’ analysis as a damages expert) should be tossed out since she made more money after Trump defamed her. “And that’s when I realized: Their defense is straight out of Ye’s ‘Famous,’ in which he boasts he made ‘that b–ch,’ aka today’s Time Person of the Year, well, famous,” Rubin wrote in the thread.
“And just like Kanye’s jumping on the MTV Music Awards stage is hardly what made Taylor famous, nor can Trump credibly claim responsibility for Carroll’s success in life. She was 76 when she came forward with her story of having been sexually assaulted by him in the ‘90s.” Rubin then further dismantled the argument, claiming that the “I own your success & you’re to blame for your injuries” defense that Trump is trying to put forth is paltry.
Trump was not present in court, having been granted permission to attend the funeral of his mother-in-law. The former president has made it a point to be irascible while he was in court, at one point entering into a back-and-forth with Judge Kaplan. The exchange prompted Trump to call him a “nasty man” and a “Trump-hating guy” after leaving the courtroom.
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Dame Dash might have just cracked the code on Kanye West’s unique fashion sense, He says Yeezy is on a troll assignment.
HipHopDX is reporting that the serial entrepreneur was the latest guest on Willie D’s podcast. The Harlem, New York native discussed a variety of topics ranging from Lyor Cohen to his newest business ventures. When asked about his former recording artist he reasoned that Kanye’s behavior in recent years should not be a surprise to anyone who is familiar with the MC’s history.
“He’s a person that pulls triggers,” Dame Dash explained. “Look at his career. [He said] ‘George Bush doesn’t like Black people,’ ran up on Taylor Swift. It’s one publicity stunt after another. That’s his model is triggering you. Just like Trump – every time Trump says something racist and we hate it, somebody loves it. He’s not talking for us. He’s talking for the ones that love it, Trump. So it’s the same thing.”
Dame went on further urge every one not to blink when it comes to Kanye’s at times bizarre modus operandi. “That’s why I don’t pay him no mind. He’s a troll. He got everybody dressing like a crackhead, bro. He’s doing this sh*t on purpose” he said. “I know what you’re doing, you’re trolling. He walk around barefoot, he’s trolling. ‘Watch this I can get dudes to wear tights and barefoot!’ I’m not saying we had that convo. When I see it I’m like, ‘Yo, he bugging,’ but I know he’s playing. You know? He wants you to get at him. Why would he do the things he does if he doesn’t want the reaction?”
You can watch the Dame Dash Willie D Live interview below.
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Looks like Ye, formerly Kanye West, might’ve been humbled by the backlash he brought on himself when he went on multiple antisemitic rants. Yeezus is attempting to once again apologize to the Jewish community for his Nazi-ish words.
For weeks now, Ye has been pushing back the release of his latest album Vultures, and according to TMZ, Ye now plans on releasing a 40-minute apology video before the album officially hits streaming platforms. Could this be the reason Ye keeps delaying the release of the album? We don’t know, but his day-one fans are getting antsy and take to social media to air out their frustrations every time a new release day passes without the album dropping.
Though Ye did recently release an apology, it didn’t seem to take as many felt it was a fugazi attempt to get back in the good graces of the Jewish community. Now it seems like Ye is going all out with his next attempted apology, and it could be pretty long.
Per TMZ:
Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ … the controversial rapper got some camera guys together to shoot a lengthy apology video several weeks ago — and we’re told it ended up running about 40 minutes … with Ye talking straight to the camera.
We’re told in no uncertain terms, Ye was “rambling” and at times it was impossible to decode what he was saying.
One more thing about this apology … our sources say whatever was shot is supposed to be released sometime ahead of his new album, “Vultures,” which is scheduled to drop Feb. 9 — this after several delays dating back to late last year.
Ye taking 40 minutes to apologize to the Jewish community and apparently rambling at times? Seems quite Trumpian of him. How could this possibly go wrong?
No word on when said video is set to release (or if it will actually even be released), but best believe once it does social media will be all over it either defending or trashing it. We just hope he doesn’t say some off the wall sh*t like “the holocaust was a choice” or something.
What do y’all think of Ye dropping a 40-minute apology video? Is it a good idea or a horrible one? Let us know in the comments section below.