At a listening event for his new album Vultures, Kanye West donned a hood reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan. The album is set to be released this Friday.
At the event in Miami, West donned a pointed black hood with eyeholes, along with other music stars such as Chris Brown, Kodak Black, Offset, and his own children North, Saint, and Chicago.
In October 2022, West unveiled T-shirts for his fashion brand Yeezy with the phrase “White Lives Matter”. He later claimed that the Black Lives Matter movement was fraudulent.
In the following month, he expressed several prejudiced remarks towards Jewish individuals, stating: “I am actively opposing JEWISH PEOPLE at a level of high alert…You all have played games with me and attempted to ostracize anyone who disagrees with your plans.” He later added: “Each person has something valuable to offer, even Hitler…[Nazis] also had some positive actions.” Additionally, he shared a photo combining a swastika and Star of David.
Adidas cut ties with the rapper following the comments, ending a lucrative partnership that had launched the rapper’s Yeezy trainer brand to huge success. Companies such as TJ Maxx and Foot Locker stopped stocking Yeezy products, while Gap ended their partnership with West.
According to reports, the rapper, also known as Ye, responds to the accusations on Vultures by stating “I am not anti-Semitic” in a vulgar and sexually explicit lyric.
The cover art for Vultures displays a painting created by Caspar David Friedrich, a German landscape painter from the Romantic era who gained support from the Nazis. The font and positioning of the album title in the top left corner bears resemblance to album covers from the Norwegian black metal group Burzum, led by Varg Vikernes who has expressed white nationalist views and was found guilty in 2014 of promoting racial hatred through his blog posts targeting Jews and Muslims (despite denying their authorship).
The album Vultures features a collaboration between rapper and singer Ty Dolla $ign and the duo is known as ¥$. Other notable artists, such as Nicki Minaj, Young Thug, and Lil Baby, are also featured on the album, and even West’s daughter North makes a rap appearance. It is believed that veteran producer Timbaland is also involved, as he posted on Instagram that this is one of his best projects, along with a tracklist of 18 songs.
A snippet of a Backstreet Boys’ popular song Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) is used in a track available for preview online.
Source: theguardian.com
