SEPTEMBER 13, 2007: Kanye West at the in-store signing of his new release ‘Graduation’ held at the Virgin Megastore Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood. Courtesy of PopularImages.

One of my classmates recently shared that their favorite artist is rapper Kanye West. As a Taylor Swift fan, I knew about their drama, but I didn’t think West was a horrible person. Then, I searched ¨Kanye West Controversies¨, and the slew of allegations I found against him were just disgusting, and I wondered how he had not been canceled yet.  

One of the first instances of his blatant mistreatment of other celebs is the infamous 2009 VMA Awards. 

Taylor Swift, a new and upcoming 19-year-old artist, received the Moonman for Best Female Video for her music video You Belong with Me on her sophomore album Fearless. As she accepted it, West rushed to the stage and said, “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!” 

But the story doesn’t end there. 

In 2016, he released the song Famous, which included the line, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b**** famous.” Kim Kardashian, his wife at the time, released a video of West secretly recording his conversation, in which he allegedly “got permission” from Swift to release this song.

However, Swift is not the only celebrity he has put through the wringer. He did this to his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, so-called friend Lizzo, and comedian Pete Davison. 

Since Kardashian filed for divorce in 2021, West has had very public choice words. He’s attacked her parenting and career while also claiming God wants them to be together. Many fans now see his behavior as emotional abuse and gaslighting, shattering the former couple’s once-happy image. 

In retaliation to the news that his former wife started a new relationship with Davison, West released the song “Eazy,” which the lyrics included a threat to Davidson, in which West raps, “God saved me from that crash /Just so I can beat Pete Davidson’s a** (who?)”. 

Kardashian and Davidson eventually broke up, and Davidson later admitted to being in trauma therapy due to the treatment he received from West and his fans. A source admitted, “The attention and negativity coming from Kanye and his antics is a trigger for [Pete], and he’s had to seek out help.”

West has also slammed former friend Lizzo during a 2022 interview on Fox News. He criticized the body-positive movement and described those who champion Lizzo’s weight as “demonic”.

Not only has he targeted individuals in the media unfairly and unprovoked, but he has also publicly backed Adolf Hitler, which is a major red flag on its own. West joined alt-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on his InfoWars talk show on Dec. 1, 2022, where he praised Adolf Hitler.

“Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler… I don’t like the word ‘evil’ next to Nazis…I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis.” Later in the interview, even though Jones was clearly becoming uncomfortable, West reiterated that it’s “time to promote love” by declaring, “I do love Hitler. I do love the Zionists.”

This is not the first time he has publicly supported Nazi rhetoric. 

West has also been accused of racism and anti-Semitism by Trevor Phillips, who is black and worked for two of West’s ventures for nearly a year. He claims in a Los Angeles lawsuit that he suffered severe discrimination, harassment, and retaliation from West.

According to the lawsuit filed, Phillips said West would never “berate a white person, but on countless occasions he saw and/or personally experienced Kanye frenziedly yell at Black people. The suit also claims that West praised Hitler, calling the Nazi leader “great” at a dinner at an upmarket restaurant in Los Angeles.”Hitler was an innovator. He invented so many things. He’s the reason we have cars,” the suit alleges West to have said. On several occasions, Phillips also witnessed Kanye preach to his staff obscenities such as ‘the Jews are out to get me’ and ‘the Jews are stealing all my money’,”

Kanye also told the employees… that no staff could be fat -– otherwise he would fire them.

Before these allegations came out, he was also accused of the same thing at his Yeezy Paris Fashion Week show on Oct. 3, 2022. He wore a shirt emblazoned with the phrase “White Lives Matter” on its back and featuring Black models in the shirt. The phrase is one that neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups adopted in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. The term is rooted in

West has also had multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. On Nov. 26, Adidas, the company that owns his brand Yeezy, confirmed it had opened an investigation into inappropriate workplace conduct after numerous ex-employees, in an anonymous letter, accused the sportswear brand of insufficient response to West’s allegedly toxic behavior on the job. 

The former employees allege that West showed them sexual photos and straight-up porn in meetings and also accused him of bullying. 

On Apr. 24, 2024, West took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to announce that his brand, Yeezy, would be expanding into the adult content space.

West has been very open about how his porn addiction has destroyed his family, revealing in 2019 that he found his dad’s copy of Playboy when he was five, which served as the “gateway to a full-on pornography addiction.”  He said, “It has affected every choice I have made for the rest of my life from age 5 to now, where I’m having to kick the habit. And it just presents itself in the open, like it’s OK. And I stand up and say: it’s not OK.”

So if he is against pornography, why did he team up with porn business Vixen Media Group and create Yeezy Porn?

Continuing with the sexual inappropriateness, West had photos taken of him in public with his butt exposed.

In the pictures, West is seen in a boat sitting down with his butt in full view while Bianca Censori, his wife, crouched between his legs as he placed a hand on her head. It was clearly a compromising position and attracted calls for the couple to be arrested for public indecency. However, they just were banned for life from using the water taxi company. 

Terrorizing celebrities, publicly expressing anti-Semitic sentiments, and sexual inappropriateness in the workplace and in public is not something grown men should be doing.  The fact that people still listen to West’s music (which is, then, in turn, giving him money)  is disgusting, quite frankly, and supporting West is supporting anti-semitism.