Kanye West

Kanye West’s most controversial album cover from “Love Everyone.”

Ye has had many controversies in the past and present but when did it all start? All the controversial thoughts that Ye started to share started on Nov 19, 2016 during Saint Pablo Tour. He started to have a mental breakdown after saying he was canceling the tour and started to rant about politics. After the tour ended he was hospitalized.

Political controversy era

Ye being hospitalized led to him spiral into sharing his controversial thoughts.

The first of these thoughts were him sharing how he liked Donald Trump in a tweet saying “You don’t have to agree with trump but the mob can’t make me not love him.”

After this he tweeted “We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don’t agree with everything anyone does. That’s what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.”

Love Everyone controversy era

Ye worked on an album after having another mini breakdown after his wife, Kim Kardashian, was robbed at gunpoint. This album, Love Everyone, would lead to another Ye controversy because of the ideas that were shared in this album. The topics on the album ranged from slavery to suicide. This album was made with the idea that everyone could be forgiven and loved for anything that they’ve done, according to Ye. The album cover was even a picture of the man who indirectly led to the death of his mom, Donda West.

He would never release this album as a whole due to the backlash he received before the album dropped. However, some of the song’s demos would be changed and released later in the self-titled album Ye. One of these songs would be “Violent Nights.”

(Warning: this song has explicit lyrics).

Ye’s antisemitic remarks

The current controversy for Ye has been his antisemitic remarks. Ye would find himself in trouble after tweeting “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 Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”

Even though this wasn’t the first time Ye has tweeted something targeting Jewish people, this would be the first time it would be pointed out to the public. After a couple months the controversy died down for a bit. Ye would double down on Dec 1, 2022 on an interview on Alex Jones’ podcast, saying “The Jewish media has made us feel like the Nazis and Hitler have never offered anything of value to the world,” and “I see good things about Hitler, also.” Ye would receive the largest backlash he has ever seen. Within days, Adidas dropped its partnership with Ye, which resulted in an estimated  $1.6 billion loss to his net worth.

Ye would then disappear from the public for a while after all the backlash. He would feature occasionally in other artists’ songs but never drop music after this period.

However, during 2023 it was revealed he had worked on a song named “God Got Me” in early 2021 and late 2022.  It wasn’t going to be released, but got leaked, after which Ye uploaded the song to Soundcloud.  This song was meant to represent Ye’s mind before and after his comments.

(Warning: This song has explicit lyrics and explores topics such as immigration at the U.S border and Palestine.)

Aftermath 

Ye seems largely to have recovered from his recent controversies.  According to Forbes, he has lost an estimated 75% of his net worth, but has recently dropped his new album Vultures 1 and has returned to the public eye.