American rapper, Kanye West, deleted his X account last night following a spree of hateful and controversial tweets. The star has come under fire several times in recent years for his open support for Nazis.
On February 7, West went on a rapid tweeting spree where he would post concerning messages in all caps. The spree lasted several days.
Kanye West declares himself a Nazi
One tweet read: “I LOVE HITLER NOW WHAT B****ES”. That tweet got 11.5k likes. Another said: “IM A NAZI” and was liked by 10.6k users.
Capping off his Nazi-related tweets, the rapper deleted everything from his merch site and is now only selling a white t-shirt with a swastika on it for $20.
An advert leading viewers to his website was aired during the Super Bowl commercials as a local buy ad – it did not air nationally.
Remaining fans of his that stuck by him after he released his previous controversial merch (a set that had a pattern that looked like a swastika on it) have now begun to jump ship.
“I know Kanye means a lot to people, me included, but at some point we have to accept that this is just a guy with a massive platform screaming ‘I’m a Nazi’ and ‘free my friend the pedophile’. We’re far past the point of continuing to make excuses for him,” said X user @zaydante.
Worryingly, some fans are still agreeing with the rapper and have even said that they have bought his swastika t-shirt. X user @GarnerNaseem replied to a tweet about the merch that said: “I bought one”.
West declares it a social experiment
West continued to post anti-Jewish, misogynistic, racist, and homophobic tweets throughout this spree.
Other tweets included West stating “I JUST TWEETED EVERYTHING I COULD THINK OF AND IM STILL ALIVE” and “I JUST TURNED DOWN 3 PHOTOS WITH MAKE A WISH KIDS IN WHEELCHAIRS”.
At one point he tweeted that this was a social experiment where he would tweet everything he thought of for 12 hours.
“I tweeted pretty much everything I felt like for about 12 hours and I still have my twitter. And most importantly my billions. Thank you everyone for participating in this social experiment,” he said.
The rapper then listed “fellow rappers”, “black women”, “all gays”, “all jews”, “all gay jews”, “all gay jew rappers”, “all broke n****s”, “internet trolls”, and “all neurodivergents” as he thanked them and expressed his love for them.
He then deleted that tweet and continued to post hateful messages.
Before deleting his X account West thanked X owner Elon Musk for letting him “vent”.
“It has been very cathartic to use the world as a sounding board. It was like an Ayahuasca trip,” he said.
Not the first time
West has had his X account suspended for making antisemitic comments before. In October 2022, Kanye West’s tweets led Adidas to cut ties with him, and a restriction was placed on his account. In December of the same year, Musk suspended his account until July 2023 for “incitement to violence”. This came after West posted a picture of a Star of David with a swastika inside.
Featured Image Credit: Associated Press (AP)
Fourth year student journalist studying Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Journalism Studies.
Words at Brig, The Daily Evergreen, Alloa Advertiser, Discovery Music Scotland, and The Mourning Paper.
