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.”
On Monday, the talent agency representing West removed him from their roster. Daniel McCartney of 33 & West wrote in a statement that his working relationship with West was over, “effective immediately … due to his harmful and hateful remarks that myself nor 33 & West can stand for”.
On Tuesday, a former staff member for West’s company – anonymised as Jane Doe – filed a lawsuit against him in Los Angeles superior court, alleging wrongful termination, and gender and religious discrimination.
The woman, who is Jewish, alleges a series of incidents between January and June 2024, including that he fired her after sending her a text message reading “Hail [sic] Hitler”.
Another alleged text message read: “Welcome to the first day of working for Hitler.” The woman’s lawyer, Carney Shegerian, described “a relentless and deliberate campaign of antisemitism and misogyny” from West.
West has not commented on the lawsuit, nor the actions of Shopify and 33 & West. The Guardian has contacted his management for comment.
Over the weekend, X allowed the antisemitic slurs to remain on its site, but later intervened when West began posting links to pornographic videos on his account.
Elon Musk, the owner of X, commented: “Given what he has posted, his account is now classified as NSFW [not safe for work]. You should not be seeing that any more.” West deactivated his X account later that day, writing: “I’m logging out of Twitter. I appreciate Elon for allowing me to vent.”
West has made antisemitic remarks for several years. In October 2022, he said he was “going death con 3 on Jewish people … You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.” After widespread condemnation, the sportswear brand Adidas cut ties with him, ending their lucrative partnership on Yeezy-branded trainers.
West continued to make antisemitic comments, telling rightwing pundit Alex Jones: “There’s a lot of things that I love about Hitler.” On X, he posted an image of a swastika intertwined with a Star of David. In response, X suspended his account for eight months.
The then US president Joe Biden put out a statement shortly after the comments, though without naming West, saying: “The Holocaust happened, Hitler was a demonic figure.”
In 2023, West apologised, writing in Hebrew on social media: “I sincerely apologise to the Jewish community … It was not my intention to hurt or demean, and I deeply regret any pain I may have caused.”
But at the weekend, West wrote: “I’m never apologising for my Jewish comments … I’m calm as ice this is how I really feel.”
Earlier this month, West made a controversial appearance alongside his wife Bianca Censori at the Grammy awards, where he told her to remove her fur coat, revealing a sheer minidress that left her essentially naked. Referring to the stunt, West write on X: “I have dominion over my wife.”
The rapper recently told a podcast host he had been diagnosed as autistic, and misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder.
He is due to release his next album Bully in the summer. His last two, Vultures 1 and Vultures 2, released in 2024, reached No 1 and No 2 in the US chart respectively.
