The rapper, record producer, and fashion designer has also been locked out of his Twitter and Instagram accounts
(Picture: Victor Boyko/Getty Images For Kenzo)Kanye West is no stranger to controversy. He recently came under fire after his surprise fashion show at Paris fashion week for Yeezy Season 9.
His catwalk included a T-shirt with the slogan “White Lives Matter”, causing outrage.
“White Lives Matter” is a white-supremacist phrase that originated in early 2015 as a racist response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Kanye, who recently changed his name to Ye, told the audience before the show: “Everyone here knows that I am the leader… you can’t manage me. This is an unmanageable situation.”
Now, it has been announced that Ye’s interview on LeBron James’s show The Shop has been scrapped. In fact, the whole episode has been pulled.
The talk show is hosted by LeBron James and his business partner, Maverick Carter. Carter explained that Ye’s interview was shot very “recently”. This episode was set to feature Jeezy, who collaborated with Ye on the 2008 track Put On, as well as shoe designer Salehe Bembury. But their interviews have also been axed because of Ye’s involvement.
“After talking to Kanye directly the day before we taped,” Carter said, “I believed he was capable of a respectful discussion and he was ready to address all his recent comments. Unfortunately, he used The Shop to reiterate more hate speech and extremely dangerous stereotypes.”
Carter emphasised that his show “embraces thoughtful discourse and differing opinions”, but that he and his team “have zero tolerance for hate speech” and will not allow their channels to be used to promote hate.
“I take full responsibility for believing Kanye wanted a different conversation and apologise to our guests and crew. Hate speech should never have an audience,” he continued.
LeBron James has not made a statement about the situation.
What antisemitic comments did Kanye West make?
Ye made antisemitic comments in an interview last week with Tucker Carlson. The comments were originally left out, but were later obtained by Vice News’s Motherboard.
In one of the clips, he complains about sending his kids to a school that celebrates Kwanzaa: “I prefer my kids knew Hanukkah than Kwanzaa. At least it will come with some financial engineering.”
Twitter also removed a post and suspended him for a now-deleted tweet that read: “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE. The funny thing is I actually can’t be anti-Semitic because black people are actually Jews also. You guys have toyed with me and tried to blackball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”
The use of the term “death con 3” was a likely reference to US military term Defcon 3.
The Jewish Chronicle alleged that Ye’s use of the term was a move to “declare metaphorical war on Jewish people”.
What else has Kanye West done to cause controversy?
Aside from his White Lives Matter antics, and antisemitic comments, he has recently made comments about singer Lizzo’s weight.
In the same two-part interview with Carlson, he described championing her weight as “demonic”.
“Lizzo works with my trainer, a friend of mine, Harley Pasternak. When Lizzo loses 10 pounds and announces it, the bots – that’s a term, it’s like telemarketer callers – on Instagram, they attack her for losing weight because the media wants to put out a perception that being overweight is the new goal when it’s actually unhealthy,” Ye said.
He continued: “Let’s get aside from the fact whether it’s fashion and Vogue – which it’s not – or if someone thinks it’s attractive, to each his own. It’s actually clinically unhealthy. And for people to promote that, it’s demonic.”
