Kanye West had another eventful weekend, and like everything he does nowadays, it was all bad.
As previously reported by The Root, the Chicago native started the weekend by trying to issue an apology to George Floyd’s family on Friday, telling paparazzi, “When I see that video as a Black person, it hurts my feelings. And I know that police do attack…and that America is generally racist. And I understand that when we got to say Black Lives Matter, the idea of it made us feel good together as a people.”
However, he couldn’t just stop there, he had to keep going and once again make himself the victim. West continued: “Now, afterwards there was some things where the money went in order to push us to the Democratic vote. So when I questioned the death of George Floyd, it hurt my people. I want to apologize. Because God has showed me by what adidas is doing, by what the media is doing, I know what it feels to have a knee on my neck right now.”
This so-called apology comes after the “Flashing Lights” artist appeared on the Drink Champs podcast and claimed that George Floyd died of a Fentanyl overdose. Floyd died of cardiac arrest as Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck while he was handcuffed. Because we all saw this happen in the widely spread video, Kanye’s comments are particularly insulting to Floyd’s family and all the people around the world who protested police brutality in the wake of his murder.
Of course, it didn’t take long for the award-winning artist to change his tune, posting a photo of Roxie Washington, the mother of Floyd’s daughter, and complaining about the family suing him for $250 million for his comments, writing, “I gave 2 million dollars out of my pocket for the family. To help George’s daughter… Your daughter!” He went on to add, “Now because of words you want to sue me for 250 million dollars… when I’m going through an Economic Lynching. A Digital Lynching. A Social Credit Score bankrupting,” per Hot New Hip Hop.
And because there seems to be no low for him lately, on Sunday, the “Power” rapper took to Instagram to respond to Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel with an anti-semitic rant where Ye accused Emmanuel of trying to destroy him writing, “You tried to bankrupt adidas and me at the same time … You tried to destroy my life after all the money I’ve made for the ‘business’ people.” The “All Falls Down” artist continued to seemingly use the word “business” in place of “Jewish” throughout the post. After everything he’s said and done, does Kanye think he’s being clever and we won’t figure out what he means?
As if his words weren’t bad enough, another troubling part of this message is his use of the post-lynching photo of Emmett Till, while also writing, “This is what modern post social media #Blackmirror warfare looks like…Economic Lynching, Digital Lynching, Bankrupting my Social Credit Score.” Is superstar, multi-millionaire, Grammy-winning artist Kanye West trying to compare the consequences he’s suffered for his words to the brutal torture and murder of a Black child in 1950s Mississippi? West’s actions are clearly influenced by his well-documented mental health challenges, but this is egregious even for him. However, I suppose once you start hanging out with Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, you don’t really care anymore.
As bad as this all is, the “Good Life” rapper is probably not done with hateful words, as his Twitter account was recently reinstated. According to NBC News, Elon Musk, the new owner of the social media platform, told one user who questioned him about the musician’s reinstatement, “Ye’s account was restored by Twitter before the acquisition.”
Amidst all the ugliness, there was a small piece of levity, as Saturday Night Live had fun with the Yeezy designer’s public removal from Skechers headquarters on Wednesday. In the mock SNL commercial, Skechers employees are very proud of turning down an opportunity to work with West, but are also excited about how “cool” this makes them look.
Frankly, there aren’t really words left for how disappointing Kanye has become but the upsetting part in all this is that until he decides to get help, his behavior will only get worse. His professional life has already reached a place it can’t come back from, so he needs to stop now and worry about his personal life and relationships.