Kanye West has been sued and dropped by his talent agency after he posted a stream of antisemitic abuse, put T-shirts with a swastika on sale in his online shop, and was alleged to have described himself as Hitler to a Jewish employee.

Last week West, also known as Ye, wrote a barrage of antisemitic posts on X including, “I’m a Nazi … I love Hitler”.

The swastika T-shirt was placed for sale on the website of his fashion brand Yeezy, with the product line “HH-01”, assumed to be code for “Heil Hitler”.

Shopify, the company that provided the online platform for Yeezy, has now taken the store offline, stating: “All merchants are responsible for following the rules of our platform. This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms.”

  • cmoney@lemmy.world
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    25 days ago

    I have some bad news for Yeezy. Nazis weren’t aren’t very fond of brown people either.

  • earphone843@sh.itjust.works
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    25 days ago

    Shopify only dropped him because they didn’t think he’d actually ship the swastika shirts, not because he was selling the swastika shirts.

  • Goodmorningsunshine@lemmy.world
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    25 days ago

    Shopify when this happened: No comment.

    Shopify after blowback: This is an abhorrent abuse of our policies! We are all adither!

    In conclusion: Fuck Shopify. And obligatory fuck ICE.

    • LostWon@lemmy.ca
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      25 days ago

      Actually they fully allow the sale of explicit Nazi merch at Shopify. They just came up with a vaguely plausible excuse to get rid of Kanye’s store specifically. The execs at Shopify are outspoken extreme right wingers. These are guys get along well with the Proud Boys (which is considered a terrorist group in Canada).

    • 2ugly2live@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      Nothing to add except I’ve never seen “adither” written out. I’ve been saying “A tizzy” all my life. 🫣

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      I worked with someone who defended Kanye for like a year after he went publicly apeshit. Probably up until at least 2019 when I last spoke to him on the topic. He just kept claiming that it was so unfair that Kanye was getting judged as an off-meds mentally ill person suffering. Which I would get, as long as he wasn’t hurting other people. But that’s been the motherfucker’s raison-etre for a while now.

      • Tiefling IRL
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        25 days ago

        Would they extend anyone else dealing with untreated mental illness the same benefit?

        • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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          24 days ago

          Yeah, if you aren’t ridiculously wealthy and you start crashing out like this, you usually just lose your job and get kicked out on the street.

          Being a little stinky in public is enough to get most mentally ill folks harassed by cops.

        • Fredthefishlord
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          25 days ago

          I thought that kind of attitude was normal to have. I don’t think my literally insane coworker is an evil person just because the voices in his head tell him to be racist

      • ZMonster@lemmy.world
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        25 days ago

        Well now there’s a ten dollar word if I’ve ever seen one.

        Slips scrabble back to the top…

    • MusicforEarthworms@lemmy.world
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      25 days ago

      Yes, I too am shocked that one of the most successful musicians of the century had a “talent agent.”

      The guy is a piece of shit but this is such an asinine comment. The only shocking part is he got dropped in the first place, considering he still somehow manages to make money hand over fist anytime he releases some half-finished album these days. The talent agencies will tolerate a hell of a lot as long as the money keeps flowing.

      • reddig33@lemmy.world
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        25 days ago

        Dude has been out of it for years, and hasn’t put out anything of note during that time. He’s already made statements that should have alerted any reputable talent agency to stay the fuck away.

        • Zahille7@lemmy.world
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          24 days ago

          The last recent things I remember of his are “you’re such a fucking ho” and fuckin “poopity scoop”

          Which, what the actual fuck. How can someone look at those some and think “producer of all time”?

    • magnetosphere@fedia.io
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      25 days ago

      I’m not sure, but I think he’s been dropped and picked up by someone else before.

      Talent agents choose money over ethics all the time. It’s practically their job. Regardless, things like this happen when the negative publicity makes a client a bad return on the agency’s investment (or a client hurts their reputation, which is to say, when a client hurts their chances of making money in the future). Their only concern is money, not antisemitism.

      Next, he’ll be contacted by an even less prestigious agency whose desperation outweighs their ethical concerns. He may already have been.

      • nomy@lemmy.zip
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        25 days ago

        I guarantee some PR-hack(s) reached out to him to offer a brilliant way they could spin this into a positive for his “brand.”

  • bluesheep@lemm.ee
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    24 days ago

    “… assumed to be code for heil hitler.”

    The news really has got to stop with this “assumed to be” bullshit. It’s as clear as day that it is code for heil hitler, as HH/88 has been a long fucking time. It’s the whole “Elon made what looked to be a nazi salute” thing all over again. No it didn’t look like a nazi salute, it was, and this HH is not maybe code for something, it is.

    Get some fucking courage and call it like it is.

    • Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works
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      “… assumed to be… looks like… could be construed as… according to a source…”are all weasel words and phrases to avoid litigation, to give a little leeway if it got to court.

      Reporting - with a nod and a wink; and a little protection.

      My favourite euphemism for “drunk/drugged and aggressive” celebrities in newspaper stories is “tired and emotional”.

      Sometimes it’s best to say something without actually saying it if you want to stay in business. Granted, it’s not ideal.

    • Glytch@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      Libel lawsuits can be expensive, and you can bet your ass that without that ambiguity Ye’s lawyers would be all over them.

    • vxx@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      The last outfall was so bad that even Alex Jones had to argue that Hitler wasnt a good guy. I’m just wondering how he was able to get back into the spotlight to repeat this shit. I mean, I have an idea what convinced him now is the time to shine again.

      • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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        24 days ago

        He said he was jealous of Elon and that it should have been him to do the salute

        I don’t think you have to wonder

          • ehpolitical@lemmy.ca
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            24 days ago

            You really think he will, even after all this? Cause that would truly be insane… and scary.

            • Zahille7@lemmy.world
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              24 days ago

              Don’t underestimate the stupidity of people.

              Take it from The Boondocks “The Trial of R. Kelly”:

              “why do you still support him after all these allegations have come to light?” “Cause he sound good!”

    • inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world
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      Mental illness doesn’t make you a Nazi. Saying Ye is acting like this because he’s off his meds is saying that those with diagnosed with bipolar or narcissism are just one step away from being a bigot. That’s not true and it only furthers the stigma of those with mental health issues.

      Ye is the one choosing to be racist, that choice is on him alone.

      • dmention7@lemm.ee
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        24 days ago

        Saying Ye is acting like this because he’s off his meds is saying that those with diagnosed with bipolar or narcissism are just one step away from being a bigot.

        Nah, it’s just saying that a specific attention-seeking bigot with a personality disorder, which is marginally controlled with meds, is more likely to go on insane attention-seeking tears of bigotry when he goes off those meds.

      • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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        24 days ago

        Exactly. I have autism and an anxiety disorder, and I don’t go around seig heiling and doing Nazi shit, and it isn’t JUST because the Nazis would have me killed.

      • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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        24 days ago

        It’s entirely possible that being off his meds is why he’s acting like this…but it’s not the reason he’s a bigot, just a reason he isn’t hiding it.

        I think it’s just as likely that he’s being loud about it because bigotry is back in fashion, though.

    • Iheartcheese@lemmy.world
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      I’m bipolar and I’m fucking tired of hearing that excuse for him. Even if I’m off my meds I’m not a fucking Nazi

      • dmention7@lemm.ee
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        24 days ago

        Not sure where I said or implied it was an excuse?

        He’s some kind of weird bigot for sure, but he’s also got a history of these random unhinged outbursts from time to time that are clearly a result of something more acute/immediate than being a nazi.

  • boaratio@lemmy.world
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    25 days ago

    Let’s not forget the first time he got banned from Twitter when he put “the Jews” on “deathcon 5.” This guy is broken. I hope he can get some help.

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
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      24 days ago

      He subscribes to the black hebrew conspiracy theory so to him, jews aren’t the real israelites, they stole it all from the original israelites, who were all black.

      It’s completely nuts and the cult has killed people before, including… MLK’s mother

    • gamer@lemm.ee
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      24 days ago

      He dropped relevance in 2009

      He might be a Nazi asshole now, but he very much is still a thing. He has never released an album that didn’t reach the number 1 or 2 position in the Billboard 200 rankings in the US, with same or similar success on ranking charts around the world, and that includes 10 albums released after 2009. The most recent was a collab in August 2024, and the most recent solo album was in 2021. Both were extremely successful and well received.

    • negativeyoda@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      And he’ll probably have another one shortly. Plenty of assholes out there who will make money off of him until it becomes untenable… then someone on a lower tier will pick him up