A 20-Year Timeline of Kanye West’s Controversial Career
“Everybody wanted to know what I would do if I didn’t win … I guess we’ll never know,” Kanye West said at the 2005 Grammys after winning Best Rap Album for his debut album, 2004’s The College Dropout. The rapper (whose legal name now drops the “Kan”) was already a well-known producer when he released his first mixtape in 2002, but his career as a solo artist took him to new heights of fame: Rolling Stone dubbed him the “most successful college dropout since Bill Gates” in 2004, while Time magazine put him on the cover in 2005 as the “smartest man in pop music.” And perhaps no one is a bigger fan of Ye than Ye himself, who has at times described himself as a genius or even a god. His self-confidence has been a constant throughout his time in the public eye — as has the presence of fans who believe his talent justifies his ego, and whose support has carried him through controversy after controversy.
While putting out a critically-acclaimed discography that now includes 11 No. 1 albums, Ye got into altercations with paparazzi, was sued over song samples, went on tirades against critics, and rushed multiple awards-show stages. He’s faced widespread backlash over accusations of antisemitism, misogyny, and anti-Blackness. In 2020, the year that Ye ran for president, his then-wife Kim Kardashian called for people to have “compassion and empathy” with regard to Ye’s mental health. “He is a brilliant but complicated person who on top of the pressures of being an artist and a black man, who experienced the painful loss of his mother, and has to deal with that pressure and isolation that is heightened by his bi-polar disorder,” she wrote in an Instagram Story. “Those who are close with Kanye know his heart and understand his words some times do not align with his intentions.” In 2025, Ye said on a podcast that he’s learned he has autism, not bipolar disorder (which he previously described on the song “Yikes” as his “superpower”), though there’s been discourse about whether either diagnosis should be used to excuse or explain his behavior.
In any case, Ye has continued to shock and offend. On May 8, he released a song called “Heil Hitler,” in which he describes himself as a Nazi. Although the track was removed from mainstream streaming services, it still found an audience of listeners on social media and a lesser-known platform called Scrybe. “@kanyewest is uncancellable because he reached such a zenith in the culture that he couldn’t be killed,” comedian Russell Brand — who denied charges of rape and sexual assault against him in April 2025 — tweeted, adding, “let’s be honest; the hook is catchy.” On May 22, Ye declared that he is “done with antisemitism,” though this assertion was met with some skepticism given his track record. Below, a timeline of all the major controversies of the artist formerly known as Kanye West, including his “Famous” feud with Taylor Swift, his Confederate flag tour merch, his first public comparison of himself to Adolf Hitler, and much, much more.
2004-2011: Going rogue during awards shows, concerts, and interviews
November 14, 2004: Ye walks out of the American Music Awards after losing the Best New Artist award to country singer Gretchen Wilson. He reportedly tells press backstage that he “was definitely robbed” and will not “give any politically correct bullshit ass comment.” (He reflects on this moment at the Billboard Music Awards in December, saying, “I was raised better than that. It was very ignorant.”)
July 2, 2005: During a Live 8 benefit concert in Philadelphia, Ye states that AIDS is a “man-made disease” that was “placed in Africa just like crack was placed in the Black community to break up the Black Panthers.” (He doubles down on the widely-debunked claim in his October song “Heard ‘Em Say,” rapping, “And I know the government administered AIDS.”)
August 18, 2005: Ye speaks out against homophobia in hip-hop during an MTV special. He explains that he decided to take a stand after his cousin came out as gay, which made him think, “I love him and I’ve been discriminating against gays.” At this point, the U.S. is still a decade away from legalizing gay marriage; Ye tells Rolling Stone later this year that he received more backlash for criticizing homophobia than he did for criticizing then-president George Bush.
September 2, 2005: Ye goes off-script and declares, “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people” during a live NBC fundraiser for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. (In his 2010 memoir, Bush recalls thinking at the time that it was the “worst moment of his presidency; Ye later reflects that he was coming from a good place but now “would have chosen different words.”)
February 9, 2006: Ye channels Jesus Christ and poses in a crown of thorns for a Rolling Stone cover story. In the piece, he defends his ego (“You want me to be great, but you don’t ever want me to say I’m great?”) and shares that he has an “addiction” to porn that began when he was five years old and found his father’s Playboy magazines.
November 2, 2006: After his Pamela Anderson-starring music video “Touch the Sky” does not win Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards, Ye crashes Justice and Simian’s acceptance speech. “Fuck dis!” he says, per Entertainment Weekly, adding in part, “If I don’t win, the awards show loses credibility.” (He suggests afterward that he was drunk during the ceremony, telling MTV UK that he “had a little sippy sippy.”)
December 2006: Per HipHopDX, Ye calls mixed-race women “mutts” in this month’s issue of Essence. “If it wasn’t for race mixing there’d be no video girls,” he says. “Me and most of our friends like mutts a lot. Yeah, in the hood they call ‘em mutts.”
September 9, 2007: At the MTV Video Music Awards, where Britney Spears is offered the opening set on the main stage and Ye is shut out in five categories, he expresses frustration by yelling backstage: “That’s two years in a row, man … give a nigga a chance, man. Give a Black man a chance.”
September 11, 2007: Ye releases the song “Good Morning,” which includes the bar, “You got D’s, motherfucker, D’s, Rosie Perez.” The actress disapproves of this reference to her breasts, later saying, “I’m a woman of a certain age and if you’re gonna mention me in a song, have a little respect.”
February 13, 2009: Ye brings up Chris Brown during a taping of VH1 Storytellers, in a moment that Reuters reports doesn’t make the final cut. Brown had been arrested days before on suspicion of physically attacking then-girlfriend Rihanna. “Can’t we give Chris a break?” Ye asks. “I know I make mistakes in life.” VH1 does leave in a moment where Ye brings up another controversial figure: “O.J. Simpson, amazing. Is he not? What he did, when he did, what he did. Was he not amazing though?”
June 1, 2009: P!nk tells FHM Australia that she is angry at Ye because she recently attended a Stella McCartney fashion show where he repeatedly told her, the vice president of PETA, and noted vegetarian Paul McCartney, “They need more fur in this show.”
September 13, 2009: Ye grabs the mic at the MTV Video Music Awards during 19-year-old Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video, which was her first win at the ceremony. “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish,” he says. “But Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!” (Beyoncé was nominated for “Single Ladies” against Swift’s “You Belong With Me.”) Ye apologizes the next day both on his blog and on The Jay Leno Show. Then-president Barack Obama calls Ye a “jackass” for the incident in an off-the-record portion of a CNBC interview on September 14. Ye’s Fame Kills tour with Lady Gaga is canceled on October 1 amid continuing backlash against him. While no official reason is provided, CNN quips that the tour has met a “swift death.”
December 30, 2010: Mutilated and lifeless-looking women feature in a leaked teaser and behind-the-scenes footage of the music video for Ye’s “Monster,” a track the features Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, and Bon Iver and hit No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November. The footage prompts a petition supported by women’s rights groups to tell Universal Music and Ye that “eroticized violence against women is unacceptable.”
2011-2016: Music, merch, and other remarks
February 23, 2011: Ye tweets, “an abortion can cost a ballin’ nigga up to 50gs maybe a 100. Gold diggin’ bitches be getting pregnant on purpose. #STRAPUP my niggas!” Per Spin, singer Lily Allen, who recently experienced a miscarriage, replies that the since-deleted post is “wrong on so many levels.”
June 4, 2011: Ye releases the official “Monster” music video on his website. “The following content is in no way to be interpreted as misogynistic or negative towards any groups of people,” a disclaimer at the beginning of the video reads. “It is an art piece and it shall be taken as such.”
August 6, 2011: Ye publicly compares himself to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler for the first time while speaking about feeling misunderstood. “I walk through the hotel, and I walk down the street, and people look at me like I’m fucking insane, like I’m Hitler,” he says over a piano loop during a headlining set at the Big Chill music festival, per Billboard. “One day the light will shine through and one day people will understand everything I ever did, ever said, was to throw myself on the blade for the sake of someone else.”
June 18, 2013: Ye releases his sixth album, Yeezus, which includes the controversially-titled track, “I Am a God.” Artwork featuring a skeleton wearing a Native American regalia and headdress is criticized by some as racist. The vice president of the American Parkinson Disease Association also takes issue with the track “On Sight,” calling out a lyric (“We get this bitch shaking like Parkinson’s”) as distasteful and inaccurate in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
August 31, 2013: Ye performs at the wedding of the grandson of longtime Kazakhstan president, Nursultan Nazarbaye. The decision prompts public backlash because Nazarbaye has been criticized for his poor human-rights record, including a brutal police crackdown against striking workers in 2011. In a statement criticizing Ye’s appearance, the Human Rights Foundation describes Nazarbaye as a dictator whose “ruthless behavior includes kidnapping the families of dissidents to his rule and abusing judicial systems across the world in persecuting his opponents.”
October 28, 2013: Ye justifies the inclusion of the Confederate flag on some of the merch for his Yeezus tour. “React how you want,” he says during an interview with Los Angeles radio station 97.1 AMP. “Any energy is good energy. You know the Confederate flag represented slavery in a way – that’s my abstract take on what I know about it. So I made the song ‘New Slaves.’ So I took the Confederate flag and made it my flag. It’s my flag. Now what are you going to do?”
November 26, 2013: Stereogum reports that Ye says Black people “don’t have the same level of connections as Jewish people” while discussing Obama with Charlamagne Tha God on Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club. (In response to criticism of these remarks as antisemitic, Ye reflects in a December 20 appearance on a Chicago radio station that he thought he was “giving a compliment, but if anything it came off more ignorant.”)
February 8, 2015: Ye goes onstage when Beck wins Album of the Year at the Grammys. Although he returns to his seat without saying anything, Ye says at E!’s afterparty that Beck “needs to respect artistry and he should have given his award to Beyoncé.” He later tells Ryan Seacrest that this was a “mis-wording,” and instead suggests that winners should mention the other nominees in their speeches out of respect.
February 20, 2015: Ye makes disparaging remarks on The Breakfast Club about his ex Amber Rose’s past as a stripper. “It’s very hard for a woman to want to be with someone that’s with Amber Rose,” he says, per Us Weekly. “I had to take 30 showers before I got with Kim.”
January 27, 2016: Ye escalate his misogynistic attacks toward Rose while feuding online with Wiz Khalifa, who shares a two-year-old son with Rose. In a posting spree, Ye tweets statements including “You let a stripper trap you,” “I know you mad every time you look at your child that this girl got you for 18 years,” “You wouldn’t have a child if it wasn’t for me,” and “I own your child!!!!” According to E! News, he later deletes the tweets and apologizes, vowing to never “speak on kids again.”
February 9, 2016: Without context, Ye tweets, “BILL COSBY INNOCENT !!!!!!!!!!” Given that a judge has recently ruled that a criminal sexual-assault case against Cosby could proceed to trial, many people interpret Ye’s tweet as a comment on the allegations of sexual assault and misconduct that Cosby faces from dozens of women.
February 11, 2016: Ye debuts his song “Famous” — which includes the lyrics “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. / Why? I made that bitch famous” — at his Yeezy Season 3 fashion show at Madison Square Garden. Ye claims the next day that he had an “hour-long convo” with Swift about the line and got her “blessings.” In a February 12 statement to Billboard, a representative for Swift counters that she “cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message” and was “never made aware” of the lyric calling her a bitch.
June 24, 2016: Ye releases the “Famous” music video, which sees him in bed with nude sculptures of several celebrities, including Swift, Kim Kardashian, Amber Rose, George Bush, Donald Trump, Chris Brown, and Rihanna, among others. (At the time, Ye is managed by Scooter Braun; in a 2019 Tumblr post about Braun’s purchase of her masters, Swift describes the video as “revenge porn” by Braun’s client.)
July 18, 2016: Ye’s wife of two years, Kim Kardashian, posts part of a recorded phone call on Snapchat to back up Ye’s claim that he called Swift and got permission to rap about her in “Famous.” Swift points out on Instagram that the recording supports her claim that she was never told about the “bitch” lyric. She adds that she wanted to believe Ye when he said that she would love the song, but never got to hear the final version as allegedly promised.
September 3, 2016: Ye tweets a casting call for his Yeezy Season 4 fashion show, asking for “multiracial women only.” People accuse him of wanting to exclude dark-skinned Black models, but he suggests to Vogue two days afterward that the wording was intended to indicate that he wanted “all variations of Black.” According to The Cut, the resulting September 7 show at Roosevelt Island does include dark-skinned women — but The Cut’s report also raises concerns that exhausted-looking street-cast models were forced to stand in the heat for too long, noting that the event that started an hour late “felt like a torture session” for these civilian models. Per the New York Post, at least one model fainted from the heat during the show, while others stumbled and tripped due to shoes that fell apart on the runway.
2016-2020: Politics and a presidential campaign
November 18, 2016: Ye says during a California concert that he did not vote in the 2016 election, but would have voted for Donald Trump if he had, per Politico. He praises Trump’s rhetorical approach as both “entertaining” and “absolutely genius.”
November 21, 2016: TMZ reports that Ye has been taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after “acting erratically” at a gym, allegedly attempting to attack an employee. His personal physician reportedly says that Ye is suffering from “temporary psychosis due to sleep deprivation and dehydration.” (He is diagnosed with bipolar disorder the following year, he tells the New York Times in 2018.)
December 13, 2016: Ye meets with president-elect Trump at Trump Tower in New York City. Ye tweets that he wanted to take the meeting to discuss “multicultural issues.”
April 25, 2018: “We are both dragon energy,” Ye tweets of Donald Trump, alongside a photo of a Make America Great Again hat signed by the president. Ye says people don’t have to agree with Trump — he notes that he personally doesn’t agree with everything anyone does — but that “the mob can’t make me not love him.” Trump replies, “Thank you Kanye, very cool!”
May 1, 2018: Ye faces widespread backlash for saying that 400 years of slavery “sounds like a choice” to him during a TMZ Live interview. In a series of tweets this evening, he tries to clarify that his point is that people “stayed in that position” because they were “mentally enslaved,” adding that he is once again “being attacked for presenting new ideas.”
September 29, 2018: Ye and his MAGA hat deliver a pro-Trump rant after he performs his final song as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live and while cast members are gathered onstage for good-byes. This speech — which also argues that the “Democrat plan” is to take Black fathers out of the home — doesn’t make it to air, but Chris Rock is in the audience and posts part of it on his Instagram Story. At one point, People reports, Rock seemingly whispers, “My God.”
September 30, 2018: In a tweet that includes a photo of himself in a MAGA hat, Ye calls for the abolition of the 13th Amendment, which makes slavery and involuntary servitude illegal except as a punishment for a crime someone has been convicted of. He says in another tweet on the same day that the amendment is “slavery in disguise,” then clarifies in an October 1 TMZ Live interview that he misspoke and wants to amend, not abolish it.
October 11, 2018: Ye meets with Trump in the Oval Office. Per CNN, he tells the president that putting on the MAGA hat he’s wearing for the visit makes him feel “like Superman.”
January 1, 2019: Ye rings in the New Year by tweeting that he is “Trump all day” and affirming his love for his MAGA hat. “Blacks are 90% Democrats,” he also tweets. “That sounds like control to me.”
October 25, 2019: Ye reiterates his previous claim that he has been addicted to porn since he was five years old, telling Zane Lowe that the “full-on pornography addiction” has “affected almost every choice I made for the rest of my life.” On the same day, he releases his ninth album Jesus Is King, which divides Christians upon release.
January 18, 2020: Awaken 2020, a 10-hour prayer rally in Arizona, features Ye as a headliner alongside his Sunday Service choir. Ye’s participation is criticized because the lineup includes several religious figures who have been vocal about their anti-LGBTQ+ views. Prior to the evangelical event, Newseek reports that an organizer issued a statement claiming that neither Kanye nor Awaken 2020 have any “place for affiliation of hate or harm toward any other person.”
March 21, 2020: An extended recording of Ye’s call with Taylor Swift about “Famous” leaks online, and Swifties feel vindicated by the fact that Ye does not ask for permission for the “bitch” lyric in the 25-minute cut; Vox reports that #KanyeWestIsOverParty trends on social media.
July 4, 2020: “We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future,” Ye tweets. “I am running for president of the United States! #2020VISION.”
July 8, 2020: Ye confirms to Forbes that he is running for president under the newly created Birthday Party with support from Elon Musk. In the interview, he states that he no longer supports Trump, refers to COVID-19 vaccines as “the mark of the beast,” and alleges that “Planned Parenthoods have been placed inside cities by white supremacists to do the devil’s work.”
July 19, 2020: Reuters reports that the audience boos Ye at his first campaign rally after he says that Harriet Tubman “never actually freed the slaves,” but rather “just had the slaves work for other white people.” During the South Carolina event, Ye cries while sharing that his dad wanted to abort him and that he initially wanted to abort North West, his eldest daughter with Kardashian. Ye goes on to suggest that abortion should be legal but heavily discouraged, with monetary incentives for giving birth.
July 20, 2020: Ye alleges on Twitter that Kardashian “was trying to fly to Wyoming with a doctor to lock me up like on the movie Get Out because I cried about saving my daughters life yesterday.”
September 16, 2020: Ye shares a video in which he appears to urinate on a Grammy Award. Per E! News, this is the culmination of days of tweets about music ownership, with Ye at point calling the music industry and the NBA “modern day slave ships.”
2021-2022: Controversial collabs and divorce fallout
January 29, 2021: “Page Six” reports that Ye has been hit with two class-action lawsuits alleging that up to a thousand performers and staff for his Sunday Service shows were mistreated and not paid on time. He could reportedly owe up to $30 million in damages.
February 19, 2021: Kardashian files to divorce Ye after almost seven years of marriage.
August 26, 2021: Ye invites controversial guests DaBaby and Marilyn Manson onstage during a listening party for his unreleased album Donda in Chicago. DaBaby, who was recently dropped from multiple music festivals after making homophobic comments, performs a guest verse on a song that originally featured Jay-Z. Manson, who faces allegations of sexual assault and misconduct from multiple women, pretty much just stands and watches. But a spokesperson for Manson later confirms that his voice will be on Donda, and that he will “conceptually collaborate” with Ye on the album.
August 29, 2021: Ye releases Donda. In addition to DaBaby and Manson, the album features some other controversial collaborators: Chris Brown (though his verse is removed in a later version of the album), who has been repeatedly accused of violence against women; Buju Banton, whose lyrics have been protested by gay-rights groups; and Jay Electronica, who drew criticism in 2020 for calling a rabbi a “DEVIL” and tweeting about the “VILE TEACHINGS” of the Jewish Talmud.
October 31, 2021: Ye brings Manson out to join a prayer circle with Justin Bieber during a surprise Sunday Service livestream in Los Angeles.
November 4, 2021: “She’s still my wife,” Ye says of Kardashian on the Drink Champs podcast. He adds that he hasn’t “seen [divorce] papers,” and that he wants “to be together” with her. This comes a day after “Page Six” reported that Kardashian and rumored new boyfriend Pete Davidson have had dinner together for the second night in a row.
November 12, 2021: Elon Musk and Ye are photographed together at a SpaceX facility in Texas. During this trip, Ye allegedly tells people at members-only Soho House in Austin that Davidson has AIDS, former Yeezy designer Pierre Louis Auvray claims in a February 2025 interview. According to Auvray, Ye allegedly later asked him to make shirts that read “Pete Davidson has AIDS,” “Pete Davidson hates black people,” and “Pete Davidson destroys families.”
December 9, 2021: During the Free Larry Hoover benefit concert in Los Angeles, Ye alters the lyrics to “Runaway” to ask Kardashian to “run right back” to him.
December 10, 2021: Per TMZ, Kardashian asks a court to declare her legally single.
December 27, 2021: A source confirms to People that Ye has purchased the house across the street from Kim Kardashian because he wants to stay close to his family. The pair share four children.
January 14, 2022: At this point, Ye has been romantically linked to Julia Fox, but his ex is still on his mind; he appears to threaten violence against Kardashian’s boyfriend on “Eazy,” his new track with The Game. Referencing a near-fatal car accident he survived in 2002, Ye raps, “God saved me from that crash, just so I can beat Pete Davidson’s ass.”
February 4, 2022: “Since this is my first divorce I need to know what I should do about my daughter being put on Tik Tok against my will ?” Ye writes in an all-caps Instagram caption of a screenshot of North in a TikTok. (He previously told Hollywood Unlocked that he does not want his children to be on the social media platform without his permission.)
February 6, 2022: Ye claims on Twitter that Kardashian has accused him of stealing, being on drugs, and “putting a hit on her.”
February 11, 2022: Fivio Foreign drops “City of Gods” with Ye and Alicia Keys. In an apparent jab at Davidson, Ye raps, “This afternoon, a hundred goons pullin’ up to SNL (What?) / When I pull up, it’s dead on arrival.”
February 12-13, 2022: Ye negatively fixates on Davidson throughout the weekend in a series of since-deleted Instagram posts with all-caps captions, per E! News. In one, Ye shares a 2019 photo of himself with Kid Cudi, Davidson, and Timothée Chalamet and places a red X over Davidson’s face. Using his nickname for Davidson, Ye writes that the internet has “still not found a decent picture of Skete” in the caption of a parody of a Captain America: Civil War poster that pits him against Davidson, Taylor Swift, and other people he has feuded with. Ye also posts an unfounded rumor alleging that Davidson sent revenge porn of Ariana Grande to Mac Miller, refers to Davidson as a “dickhead,” vows that Davidson will never meet Ye and Kardashian’s children, shares a meme that has him facing off against Davidson in a “fight night,” and encourages fans to “scream” at the comedian if they see him in person. Some of Ye’s posts contain purported screenshots of text messages from Kardashian and Davidson.
February 14, 2022: Fox confirms that she and Ye have broken up, and he shares photos on Instagram of a truckload of flowers that he seemingly intends to send to Kardashian for Valentine’s Day. Per “Page Six,” he also posts a screenshot of a purported text from her that reads, “U are creating a dangerous and scary environment, and someone will hurt Pete, and this will be all your fault.” In an all-caps caption, Ye writes, “Upon my wife’s request please nobody do anything physical to Skete. I’m going to handle the situation myself.” He shares more purported texts from Kardashian, including one in which she questions why he can’t keep their conversations private. Per Elle, Ye responds, “Cause I got a text from my favorite person in the world. I’m your number one fan. Why wouldn’t I tell everyone!!!!”
February 15, 2022: Ye apologizes on Instagram for including texts in his deluge of posts about Kardashian and Davidson. “I know sharing screen shots was jarring and came off as harassing Kim. I take accountability,” he writes, though he still affirms his belief that he and Kardashian will get back together.
February 23, 2022: In a court filing obtained by E! News, Kardashian says that Ye has “been putting a lot of misinformation regarding our private family matters and co-parenting on social media which has created emotional distress.” She reiterates her request to be declared legally single, writing, “I believe that the Court terminating our marital status will help Kanye to accept that our marital relationship is over and to move forward on a better path which will assist us in peacefully co-parenting our children.”
March 3, 2022: Two days after Kardashian is declared legally single, Ye drops a claymation music video for “Eazy,” the song that includes the “just so I can beat Pete Davidson’s ass” lyric. In the video, a Davidson look-alike is kidnapped and buried alive. Ye defends the visual on Instagram, writing on March 6 that art is “therapy,” “protected as freedom of speech,” and “is not a proxy for any ill or harm.” He doubles down with a March 10 animated “Eazy” music video that features another caricature of Davidson getting physically attacked.
March 16, 2022: Ye goes on an Instagram posting spree about Davidson, claiming in a caption he is concerned the SNL star will get Kardashian “hooked on drugs.” He also calls Trevor Noah a “Koon” after the Daily Show host expressed concern in a recent monologue that Ye’s behavior toward Kardashian was getting “more and more belligerent.” (Meta suspends Ye from Instagram for 24 hours for violating hate speech, bullying, and harassment policies.)
March 18, 2022: The Blast reports that Ye’s team has been informed that he is being pulled from the Grammys performer lineup due to his “concerning online behavior.”
August 8, 2022: In apparent celebration of Davidson and Kardashian’s recent breakup, Ye posts and quickly deletes a faux newspaper headline on Instagram that reads, “Skete Davidson dead at age 28.”
2022-2024: Antisemitism, anti-Blackness, and sexual misconduct
October 6, 2022: When asked about his recent decision to dress himself, Candace Owens, and several Black models in “White Lives Matter” T-shirts at Paris Fashion Week, Ye tells Tucker Carlson on Fox News that he thinks the shirt is “funny,” adding, “The answer to why I wrote ‘White Lives Matter’ on a shirt is because they do.” During the interview, he also references antisemitic beliefs about Jewish control of business, wears an ultrasound photo around his neck to espouse the claim that “50% of Black death in America is abortion,” and brings up Lizzo while describing the promotion of “unhealthy” weight as “genocide of the Black race.”
October 7, 2022: Ye posts a series of screenshots on Instagram that appear to be of a text-message conversation with Sean “Diddy” Combs, who had posted an October 5 video telling people not to buy the “White Lives Matter” shirt. Ye suggests that Combs is being controlled, writing, “Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me.” His Instagram is subsequently restricted by Meta for violating platform policies, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
October 8, 2022: Ye takes his antisemitic remarks to an ominous new level by declaring online that he’ll be “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,” he adds in the tweet. “You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.” (Twitter removes the post and temporarily locks his account, CNN reports.)
October 10, 2022: In footage captured and posted on his YouTube channel, Ye plays pornography during a meeting with multiple Adidas employees. He says the video is about a girl who retaliates after being cheated on, suggesting that it is therefore relevant to his feelings about his business relationship with the company.
October 12, 2022: Producers of LeBron James’s The Shop confirm to NBC that a recently taped episode with Ye will not air because he used his appearance to reiterate unspecified “hate speech and extremely dangerous stereotypes.”
October 15, 2022: During a subsequently-removed episode of Revolt’s Drink Champs podcast, Ye claims that, rather than being murdered by a police officer, George Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose. He also accuses ”Jewish media” and “Jewish Zionists” of getting his shows canceled.
October 17, 2022: Ye references the “Jewish underground mafia” in a NewsNation interview, alleging that “every celebrity has Jewish people in their contract.” He also alleges that Jewish staffers have threatened his life over his political beliefs. Over the next week, he doubles down on tropes of Jewish power and control on Piers Morgan Uncensored and the Lex Fridman podcast, as well as to paparazzi.
October 27, 2022: Citing anonymous sources that were previously close to Ye, CNN reports that he has an “obsession” with Adolf Hitler. Allegedly, he praised the Nazi leader and wanted to name his 2018 album after him.
November 2, 2022: Six people who previously worked with Ye allege to NBC News that Ye has been making pro-Hitler and pro-Nazi comments since 2018, with several claiming that they were regularly asked to sign NDAs after overhearing antisemitic remarks. Documents obtained by NBC show that Ye paid a settlement to an employee who claimed Ye had made such remarks, though Ye denied the allegations in the settlement agreement.
November 20, 2022: Ye tells paparazzi that he is running for president again and identifies alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos as his campaign manager.
November 22, 2022: Ye has dinner with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. He asks Trump to be his vice president, a source tells ABC News afterward. Trump later claims on Truth Social that Ye unexpectedly brought white nationalist Nick Fuentes with him to the meal.
November 24, 2022: Former Yeezy and Adidas employees claim in a Rolling Stone report that Ye used intimidation tactics that were often sexualized and directed at women. They allege that he played porn and his own sex tape for staff, showed an intimate photo of Kardashian in job interviews, and made “sexually disturbing references” when giving design feedback.
December 1, 2022: Ye appears on InfoWars and tells host Alex Jones that he sees “good things” about Adolf Hitler. “The Jewish media has made us feel like the Nazis and Hitler have never offered anything of value to the world,” he says during the hours-long interview.
December 2, 2022: Ye tweets a photo of a swastika inside of a Star of David, and Elon Musk confirms that Ye’s account will be suspended for incitement of violence. (The account is reinstated in July 2023.)
December 14, 2022: Multiple sources who previously worked with Ye tell Rolling Stone that he has been obsessed with Hitler for almost two decades, dating back to the making of his debut album, The College Dropout. Two people claim that he was inspired by Nazi propaganda strategies and hoped to apply them to his career.
August 28, 2023: Ye and his wife of around eight months, Bianca Censori, appear to commit a sexual act on a Venice water taxi in view of the public. The Daily Mail reports on September 3 that the couple have been banned for life by the water taxi company.
September 6, 2023: Anonymous friends of Censori’s tell The Daily Mail that they are concerned Ye is trying to turn her “into a radicalized version of Kim.” They further suggest that he is heavily influencing Censori’s attire (or lack thereof) and putting up “blockades” that prevent any of them from helping her.
October 27, 2023: The New York Times publishes a lengthy exposé claiming that Ye has been engaging in misconduct at Adidas for almost a decade. Allegations include that he drew a swastika at the company’s German headquarters in 2013 because he was angry about a design, made Adidas execs watch porn at his Manhattan apartment, upset staffers with sexually crude comments, threw shoes at higher-ups and accused them of “slavery,” and told a Jewish staffer to kiss a photo of Hitler every day. People who previously worked with him said they had seen him drinking at work, that he sometimes went days with little or no sleep, and that he at times “resisted treatment” for bipolar disorder.
November 17, 2023: “How I’m antisemitic, I just fucked a Jewish bitch,” Ye raps on his unreleased track “Vultures,” which premieres on a Chicago radio station, per Rolling Stone.
December 12, 2023: The Los Angeles Times reports that Ye wears a black Ku Klux Klan-style hood to a listening party in Miami for his upcoming joint album with Ty Dolla $ign, Vultures. The event is attended by his then-10-year-old daughter, North, who is featured on the project. She is seen dancing onstage to the uncensored version of “Vultures.”
December 14, 2023: Amid ongoing discourse over whether the Vultures cover art is linked to Nazism, Rolling Stone reports that Ye says at a Las Vegas event for the album, “Jesus Christ, Hitler, Ye … third party, sponsor that, n—a. Bring your sponsorships to that.” He also conflates Jewish people with Zionists and espouses conspiracy theories about control of hospitals and private schools.
December 26, 2023: Ye apologizes to the Jewish community for any “unintended outburst caused by my words or actions” in an Instagram post in Hebrew, per an AP News translation. “It was not my intention to offend or demean, and I deeply regret any pain I may have caused,” he writes.
April 2, 2024: Ye is sued by Trevor Phillips, a former employee at the already-controversial Donda Academy. Phillips alleges that Ye created a hostile work environment, treated Black staff “considerably worse” than white staff, made homophobic and antisemitic comments within earshot of students, and once told students he was going to put a jail in the school where they could be locked in “cages.”
April 24, 2024: Ye posts a six-second clip with the caption “Yeezy Porn Is Cumming.” This comes one day after TMZ reported that the rapper has been consulting with Stormy Daniels’s ex-husband, Mike Moz, over plans to launch an adult entertainment studio. Ye’s chief of staff, Milo Yiannopoulos, provides a resignation letter to TMZ in May that explains that he is leaving Ye’s team because he can’t be involved in creating or distributing pornographic material.
2024-present: Lawsuits from ex-employees and more antisemitism
June 3, 2024: Lauren Pisciotta, a former assistant of Ye’s, sues him for sexual harassment, wrongful termination, and breach of content. She alleges that he masturbated in front of her and during phone conversations; sent her sexual texts, photos, and videos; and did not pay out a severance package after firing her in October 2022. (Ye’s legal rep denies the claims in a statement to Rolling Stone that in turn accuses her of blackmail, extortion, and “lascivious, unhinged conduct.”)
June 30, 2024: The Washington Post reports that eight employees, including some minors, are suing Ye and Yeezy over allegations of a hostile work environment where they were called “slaves” and “new slaves,” exposed to pornographic images, and not paid for long working hours.
October 10, 2024: In a new lawsuit obtained by USA Today, a former employee who was first hired to work on Ye’s presidential campaign in late 2022 alleges that he was told to investigate Kim Kardashian and hire private investigators to “tail” Bianca Censori. The anonymous plaintiff claims that Ye did not pay him for all of his work and once threatened to kill him.
October 12, 2024: In a new filing obtained by Billboard, Pisciotta claims that Ye drugged and sexually assaulted her during a studio session that was co-hosted by Sean “Diddy” Combs (though her claims are only directed at Ye). The former assistant alleges that Ye then told her years later that they “did kind of hook up.”
November 14, 2024: Murphy Aficionado, a former project manager for Ye, alleges in a new lawsuit obtained by TMZ and USA Today that Ye summoned him to a hotel for a meeting on two occasions in 2022 and proceeded to audibly have sex in the neighboring room after instructing Aficionado to wait. Aficionado also claims that Ye showed him nude photos of Kardashian, made antisemitic remarks about Jewish people having control over Kardashian, wore a shirt with a swastika, told him he should remove his traditional Filipino tattoos, and never paid him for his work.
November 22, 2024: Former America’s Next Top Model contestant Jennifer An sues Ye over allegations that he choked her in a “pornographic way” on a music video set in New York City in 2010, according to a complaint obtained by USA Today.
February 4, 2025: Ye says on the podcast The Download that he was previously misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder and is actually autistic. He draws some criticism for suggesting that autism explains some of his erratic “episodes” and for referencing the 1988 film Rain Man, which has been criticized for perpetuating stereotypes about autism. In the same interview, he also divides fans for arguing that AI is the new Auto-Tune in terms of the negative reaction to its use in music.
February 6-7, 2025: In a posting spree that includes dozens of all-caps tweets, Ye describes himself as a “racist” who “loves Hitler” and declares that he will never apologize for his “Jewish comments” or “like or trust” any Jewish person. Billboard reports that he uses homophobic and ableist slurs, and at one point proposes that people call him “Yaydolf Yitler.” Per Newsweek, Ye also shares tweets in support of Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is facing a federal trial on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. (Combs has maintained his innocence.) Ye asks Trump to “please free my brother Puff” and shares that his Yeezy store is now selling shirts with Combs’s Sean John fashion line to support him. Plus, Ye takes credit for Censori’s controversial Grammys look, tweeting that he doesn’t make his wife do anything she doesn’t want to do, but also that he has “dominion” over her.
February 9, 2025: During the Super Bowl, local stations air a 30-second ad in which Ye shows off his teeth and directs people to Yeezy.com, which is only selling a $20 shirt with a swastika. (Shopify later takes down the site.) According to Billboard, he also spends part of the day tweeting uncensored pornographic clips.
February 11, 2025: Ye is sued by a former Yeezy staffer whose attorney alleges that he subjected her to “a relentless and deliberate campaign of antisemitism and misogyny.” When the Jewish staffer suggested in a January 2024 text that Ye release another statement denouncing his ties to Nazism, he allegedly replied in all caps, “I am a Nazi.” The lawsuit claims that he referred to himself as Hitler, sent her porn, and insulted her looks before ultimately firing her in June 2024. (In April 30 court documents obtained by “Page Six,” Ye’s lawyers respond by asserting that Ye “is not merely a creator; he is art.” They allege that Ye’s texts are “works” protected under the First Amendment, claiming that his “public and private personas form a continuous, provocative performance that challenges societal taboos surrounding race, religion, gender, power, politics, and censorship.”)
February 19, 2025: Ye says in a since-deleted tweet that upon reflection, he has realized that he is “not a Nazi.”
February 21, 2025: Ye posts a since-deleted screenshot of a purported text that he received informing him that he is being accused of sexual assault by an ex who is prepared to go public, but would prefer to handle the matter privately. Ye identifies Puerto Rican artist Audra Nix as the person he accuses of trying to “extort” him; she responds by claiming that she only brought the allegations to his team and did not ask for anything. (Nix informs her followers on March 8 that she “has started taking serious legal action against Kanye West.)
March 6, 2025: In a since-deleted tweet, Ye teases that his upcoming album Bully will have “that antisemitic sound.” The project is currently scheduled to drop on his daughter North’s birthday, June 15.
March 15, 2025: Ye drops the song “Lonely Roads Still Go to Sunshine” in a since-deleted post on X. It appears to include a recording of a phone call in which Sean “Diddy” Combs says from jail that he appreciates Ye for taking care of his kids. Ye responds, “Absolutely, I love you so much, man. You raised me. Even when I ain’t know you, know what I’m saying?” Ye’s daughter, North West, and Combs’s son, King Combs, are also featured on the track. Per Us Weekly, shortly before posting the song, Ye shares purported text messages from Kardashian saying that North’s name is trademarked. “I sent paperwork over so she wouldn’t be in the Diddy song to protect her,” the text reads.
March 17, 2025: Ye wears a swastika chain in a since-deleted video with Nick Fuentes, whom he describes as his “white supremacist homeboy.”
March 18, 2025: While defending Combs in since-deleted tweets, Ye appears to admit to past violence against women, writing in all caps, “Carti beat women I beat women but everybody hate Diddy.” He also accuses Casandra “Cassie” Ventura of trying to extort Combs. On the same day, he posts a tweet that questions the intelligence of Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s seven-year-old twins.
March 19, 2025: Ye tweets that he feels bad for his comments about Bey and Jay’s children. He has a new target today, calling Kardashian a sex trafficker for letting their daughter be involved in a FKA Twigs song and TikTok. TMZ reports that the week prior to this, North was spending time with Ye when Kardashian abruptly ended the visit because she’d learned that Andrew and Tristan Tate — who have both been charged with rape in Romania, and face allegations of sexual assault in the U.S. and U.K. — were en route to the location.
March 26, 2025: Ye releases “WW3,” off his upcoming album of the same name (though it has since been retitled Cuck). In the lyrics, Ye mentions “rocking swastikas” and “reading Mein Kampf, two chapters before I go to sleep.” He also proclaims, “All my niggas Nazis.” That weekend, he premieres the music video for the track on a DJ Akademiks livestream. Complex reports that the video includes still shots of people having sex, a nude woman being whipped, and what appears to be a KKK meeting.
April 3, 2025: During another DJ Akademiks livestream, Ye plays the new song “Bianca,” in which he raps, “My baby she ran away, but first she tried to get me committed / Not going to the hospital ’cause I am not sick I just do not get it.” He also describes Censori and himself as “the new Cassie and Diddy.” DJ Akademiks has previously posted a tracklist teasing titles such as “Heil Hitler,” “Cosby,” and “Hitler Ye and Jesus.” The album art also depicts figures in KKK robes.
April 21, 2025: Alongside a clip of his new single “COUSINS,” Ye tweets that he had an incestuous relationship with a cousin who is “locked in jail for life for killing a pregnant lady a few years after I told him we wouldn’t ‘look at dirty magazines together’ anymore.” According to Ye, the song is about said relative. “Perhaps in my self centered mess I felt it was my fault that I showed him those dirty magazines when he was 6 and then we acted out what we saw My dad had playboy magazines but the magazines I found in the top of my moms closet were different,” he reflects. “My name is Ye and I sucked my cousins dick till I was 14 Tweet sent.” On the song, Ye raps that he was told to never share this information, adding, “I don’t think they understand that I’m not attracted to a man / They thought I was gay.”
May 1, 2025: Ye and Censori’s publicist confirms to The Hollywood Reporter that they are back together, and already have a joint project in the works — they are preparing to sue Ye’s former dentist, Dr. Thomas Connelly, over claims that Connelly gave Ye nitrous oxide and encouraged him to administrate it on his own despite signs that Ye was experiencing distress. A rep for Ye previously accused Connelly in 2024 of trying to diminish Ye’s mental faculties so he could extort him for millions of dollars; Connelly vehemently denied the allegation in a statement to Complex at the time.
May 4, 2025: Ye writes in since-deleted tweets that “employee pussy hits different” and that if a “bitch don’t let me smash we not friends.”
May 6, 2025: Ye takes issue with Piers Morgan referring to him in an interview as Ye West, noting that he dropped “West” to lose his “slave name.” When the Uncensored host understates Ye’s social media following by 1.3 million people, Ye says, “You’re not gonna take inches off my dick, bro […] I’m a gift, bro. Why do all you people in media act like you haven’t played my songs at your weddings or graduations or at funerals or when your child was born?” He declares that there is “so much love” in his art and ultimately walks out after telling Morgan, “We can circle back when you can count.”
May 8, 2025: Ye releases the song “Heil Hitler,” which includes a lyric about how he “became a Nazi, yeah, bitch, I’m the villain” and ends with audio from a Hitler speech. The artwork for the single is reminiscent of a swastika. (It is ultimately taken down from Spotify, Soundcloud, and YouTube — the latter of which confirms in a statement that it has “removed the content and will continue to take down reuploads,” adding that accounts associated with Ye are ineligible for monetization.) Later this day, Ye claims that the song has been “banned by all digital streaming platforms,” which he views as a double standard in censorship, given that Randy Newman’s song “Rednecks” using the N-word is available to stream.
May 9, 2025: Ye finds a new home for “Heil Hitler,” encouraging his followers to stream the song on the indie streaming service Scrybe.
May 14, 2025: Ye uploads “The Heil Symphony,” an instrumental version of the track that still bears the same swastika-like artwork, on streaming services. Once again, it is taken down; the song is no longer playable on Spotify and has been unlisted on YouTube.
May 22, 2025: Fans notice that “WW3,” which was previously removed from streaming services, is available again — but the words “antisemitic,” “swastikas,” “Hitler,” “Nazis,” and “Mein Kampf” are now censored from the lyrics. On the same day, Ye tweets that he is “done with antisemitism.” In follow-up posts, he says, “God forgive me for the pain I’ve caused,” adding, “I forgive those who have caused me pain.”
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