DEATH CON 3
On Kanye West, Pt. XII
After he released Donda, it seemed that Kanye had exhausted the signifiers that shielded him in his moment of psychiatric crisis in 2016: neither his mother, Jesus, nor Trump had saved him from his darkest fantasies. After his failed presidential campaign, his unfinished records, his failed rebirth, Kanye opted for a new solution: fascism.
In October 2022, Kanye appeared at a fashion event alongside Candace Owens in a T-shirt that read ‘White Lives Matter.’ Asked to explain his message, he only said ‘They do.’1 Days later, a post to Instagram revealed Kanye’s anti-Semitic belief that Jewish people were trying to control him.2 On Twitter, he then threatened to go ‘death con 3 ON JEWISH PEOPLE’ because they ‘black ball anyone whoever opposes [their] agenda.’3 Next he went on Tucker Carlson’s show where he made veiled comments about Jared Kushner’s Jewish identity. Carlson asserted that Kanye’s views were entirely sane: ‘crazy that was not our conclusion. In fact we’ve rarely heard a man speak so honestly and so movingly about what he believes.’ Unaired footage from their talk that later leaked online, though, showed Ye linking Hannukah to ‘financial engineering,’ too, and describing a nefarious plot wherein ‘professional actors’ were placed in his house to ‘sexualise his kids,’ alongside his visions from God of cities built on ‘free, kinetic energy.’4
Were this not bad enough, Kanye then brought noted White supremacist, homophobe and anti-Semite, Nick Fuentes, to a dinner with Donald Trump. (In a hilariously egotistical move, Kanye apparently asked Trump to be his vice president at this dinner.)5 Rumours also emerged that he wanted to give his 2018 album Ye a more Reich-inspired name: Hitler.6 And then Kanye West appeared on Alex Jones’ Infowars show where he repeatedly confessed his love for Hitler and the Nazis. ‘I like Hitler,’ he said, a comment that made even Alex Jones uncomfortable. ‘The Holocaust is not what happened,’ he continued. ‘Let’s look at the facts of that. Hitler has a lot of redeeming qualities.’ There was more: ‘The Jewish media has made us feel like the Nazis and Hitler have never offered anything of value to the world.’ And in case his admiration for Hitler and the Nazis was not clear: ‘We got to stop dissing the Nazis all the time,’ he said. ‘I do love Hitler.’
The next day, Ye posted a picture of the Star of David combined with a Swastika on Twitter; Elon Musk then banned him. Shortly afterwards, Adidas employees filed complaints of bullying and sexual harassment against Kanye, who allegedly screened pornography during company meetings and showed intimate pictures of Kim Kardashian to candidates during job interviews. An unreleased 2018 track leaked in mid-December that contained anti-Semitic and other slurs. And in a final twist, Kanye insisted in another interview that his anti-Semitism was subordinate to his Sinophobia: the Jews, he said, were an instrument the Chinese use to control Black people. The Jews ‘are just middlemen.’7
The public denunciation of Kanye was swift and brutal. Some sources suggest he destroyed over $2 billion of his personal wealth in a single day. His management company and record label cancelled his contracts; Adias and Gap ended their business relations with him. In the months afterwards, it seemed that Kanye’s cancellation was absolute. In a moment of pure death drive, of utter masochism, of career suicide, Kanye annihilated his reputation by saying what was unsayable and unnecessary—an inversion, perhaps, of his inability to speak of his grief and guilt on Donda. Once among the most successful and respected artists of his generation, Kanye finally manifested the fantasies of persecution and self-pity that increasingly dominated his lyrics and made himself one of the most despised celebrities in America.
Or so it seemed. For in February 2024, Kanye released the first of two new records with Ty Dolla Sign, Vultures I. After his anti-Semitic outbursts, distributors refused to work with him; he was forced to release the record independently, without the support of a major label. Despite his isolation, his shattered reputation, his lack of remorse and his continued anti-Semitism, the album was astonishingly successful. All 16 tracks on Kanye’s record debuted on the Billboard 100. ‘CARNIVAL,’ a violently misogynistic song, became both a number three hit in America and the third most-streamed song worldwide. The album itself reached number one on the charts in thirteen countries. Kanye made over $1 million from the album in a week, and a further $20 million in merch sales following an advert broadcast to over 123 million people during 2024’s SuperBowl—the second most viewed TV event in US history after the moon landing, a viewing figure achieved, ironically, in no small part due to the presence of a certain pop-singer at the game: Taylor Swift.
‘Crazy, bipolar, anti-Semite,’ Kanye raps at the very end of Vultures I. ‘And I’m still the king.’ Despite their ire for this fascist rapper, the liberal world clearly agreed. Kanye had returned. Few signs indicated he was unwelcome.
Footnotes
https://www.nme.com/news/music/kanye-west-reiterates-white-lives-matter-message-they-do-3323817
https://www.ajc.org/news/5-of-kanye-wests-antisemitic-remarks-explained
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/16/kanye-west-antisemitic-rapper-ye-spotify
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPKCh6Z4NMI and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGZR_JKtUbQ
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/11/ye-is-running-for-president-and-asked-trump-to-be-running-mate
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/27/entertainment/kanye-west-hitler-album/index.html
See https://www.newsweek.com/kanye-west-hitler-comments-full-nazis-alex-jones-transcript, https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/57607/1/who-is-nick-fuentes-a-guide-to-kanye-west-new-far-right-friend and https://www.newsweek.com/kanye-west-hitler-comments-full-nazis-alex-jones-transcript-1764113, https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2022/12/02/kanye-wests-anti-semitic-troubling-behavior-heres-everything-hes-said-in-recent-weeks/, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/nov/24/adidas-kanye-west-investigation, and https://www.geo.tv/latest/458110-kanye-west-went-full-on-anti-semitic-amid-live-qa-on-clubhouse