I’m sure that I don’t need to explain who Kanye West is; one of the most successful and influential musical artists of all time, West has become a very controversial figure in recent years, and rightfully so. Kanye West’s transformation since 2016 is a very strange one- he made music that everybody seemed to connect with, and appeared as a very down-to-Earth guy. I’d say the Life of Pablo era is when he truly started to change, however: after infamously ranting on stage during a show of the Saint Pablo tour, he was hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation, and continued to cancel the entire tour. If you pay attention to his energy in interviews or videos online since, he has acted like a completely different person. It’s impossible to trace this change in behavior to a specific reason, but it’s likely a combination of many; his divorce from Kim Kardashian, mental health struggles with his bipolar disorder, and a lot of negative energy directed towards him being some of the main ones. He’s made a lot of inflammatory statements, but it’s only gotten really bad in the past couple of years. The “especially Hitler” incident during the Alex Jones interview is among the worst of them, but he has had many very public meltdowns where he seems borderline delirious, spouting antisemitic remarks throughout.

West has apologized or tried to make up for these incidents many times in his music or on social media, but these don’t matter when he just reverts back to his old ways immediately after, and especially after these new insidious details about Donda Academy have been released. For example, the entirety of the albums Ye and Kids See Ghosts are about moving past his Life of Pablo-era struggles, but as good as those albums are, they just don’t matter anymore after the countless other things he’s said. He recently put out an apology to the Jewish community written in Hebrew, but I instantly felt that this was too good to be true, and I was proven right. You could even point to the laughable 21 Jump Street ‘apology’ he made on social media or this lyric in the 2023 single ‘Vultures’, but once again, these are now irrelevant- especially since both of these seem like jokes as opposed to the genuine apologies that Ye and Kids See Ghosts once were. Every time he comes out and apologizes, claiming he’ll do better, the brainless Kanye fans who don’t give a second thought to these situations claim that he’s better now, even though he reverts back to his old ways almost instantaneously every time. At this point, I believe that he’s just too far gone. His personality has changed so much over the past twenty years, and at this point, I don’t think that he can or even wants to heal and truly move past everything.

So, we all know that West has said many extremely questionable things, but what can these new accusations possibly include? It seems that many, including myself, were unfamiliar with the fact that West had founded a private school named after his late mother. I only learned about this when the lawsuit was brought to my attention, and it’s pretty nasty. It seems that he created a very hostile work environment around the school and his fashion brand, Yeezy, verbally harassing and abusing staff, as well as making countless homophobic and antisemitic remarks, as well as many other far stranger accusations. The case, filed by Trevor Phillips, a former employee of Donda Academy and Yeezy claims that West:

• Stated on separate occasions- “Yeah I am going for the gays! FIRST the Jews, THEN the gays” and ” I am on some complete Hitler level stuff, Minus the gas chambers”
• Treated black staff “considerably worse than white employees”
• Threatened to shave students’ heads and lock them in cages
• Threatened to punch Phillips in the face
• Showed employees inappropriate photos of his former partners
• Made frequent negative remarks towards the Jewish and LGBTQ+ community
• Praised Hitler and claimed that the Holocaust was fake
• Once invited Phillips to a meeting where he played The Batman on mute while making several inappropriate jokes and gestures and simultaneously claiming that gay people are “controlled by Bill Gates so they don’t have children for population control.”

If these accusations are true, they are obviously disgusting and disheartening that they could come from someone that so many people have been able to connect with over the years. I didn’t even touch on everything West did; I recommend checking out the articles and sources I linked below that also discuss this topic to see just how far it goes.

I am admittedly a fan of his music, and like many others, I’ve found it difficult to handle his horrifically misinformed opinions and disgusting actions while still listening to him; the phrase “separate art from the artist” pops up quite frequently in discussions surrounding West, and while I agree with this to an extent, it is still important to recognize the nature of the artists. I don’t think it’s necessarily wrong to enjoy Harry Potter or the films of somebody like Roman Polanski, but to do so, it’s essential that you recognize the horrible things both have said and done. I’m not going to judge anybody for being a Kanye fan; I’m honestly strongly considering whether or not I want to continue listening to his music. However, I will judge those that defend everything the man does without a second thought. Anybody still listening to him needs to recognize how much he has been corrupted; I think that a fantastic source for this is the Jeen-Yuhs documentary on Netflix. The final episode focuses on his flaws, and points out those that existed even before the Alex Jones rant and everything that has followed since.

If anything, Kanye West serves as a great example of what fame can do to people. He very clearly has a high opinion of himself, and that type of ego does not make for a great combination with the many issues he’s had throughout his life. He’s clearly been corrupted by some group of people that hold radical opinions, and it’s just sad to watch the continued unraveling of Kanye West and witness him find a new way to embarrass himself and everything that his fantastic music stands for. Once again, I don’t care if you listen to Kanye. There’s a strong chance that I’ll continue to- I just implore you to truly understand how harmful of a person he is. The reach he has cannot be understated, and many of those that defend his actions without a second thought are minors that don’t understand the gravity of the things he says. Once again, I may continue to listen to his past albums, but I refuse to listen to any new release- similar to the way that I still enjoy a Harry Potter movie or a previous Scream film, but will not support any new J.K. Rowling or Scream projects. It all depends on what you think is morally correct, and it’s not up to anybody to decide that for you; I just implore you to educate yourself about controversial artists and understand what makes them controversial before you watch, listen, or read whatever it is they’ve put out.

Sources: The New York Times, USA Today, Variety