Kanye West wanted to title his 2018 album ‘Hitler’
Sources told CNN that West’s antisemitism goes back years
Kanye West attends the Givenchy Spring-Summer 2023 fashion show during the Paris Womenswear Fashion Week, Oct. 2, 2022. Photo by Julien de Rosa/AFP via Getty Images
By Mira Fox October 27, 2022
Rapper and fashion designer Kanye West has been in the news for the past several weeks, thanks to numerous antisemitic and otherwise hate speech-filled rants he has posted to Twitter or delivered on talk shows.
According to CNN, “several people who were once close to the artist” told the news outlet that the rapper’s antisemitism is nothing new. In fact, according to several sources, West wanted to name his 2018 album “Hitler.” (The album was ultimately released with the title “Ye,” after West legally changed his name to Ye.)
A business executive, who spoke with CNN under the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution from West and because of a confidentiality agreement, showed the news outlet the settlement he reached with West over workplace complaints including harassment.
According to the source, West is “obsessed” with Hitler, read “Mein Kampf” and often praised the Nazi leader for “all the great things he and the Nazi Party achieved for the German people.” The source also said that West was particularly impressed by the Nazi use of propaganda; West’s own antisemitic statements use many of the same ideas and stories as Nazi propaganda against Jews in the 1930s.
The anonymous business executive is not the first to note that West’s antisemitism goes back to at least 2018. Van Lathan Jr., a former employee at gossip site TMZ, recalled an infamous interview West did with the site in which he said slavery was “a choice” Black people made.
On an episode of the podcast “Higher Learning,” Lathan alleged that during the same interview, West also made numerous antisemitic statements that were edited out, while a number of anti-Black statements were aired. (Another source present at the interview also told CNN that West had spoken favorably about Hitler while there.)
“He said something like, ‘I love Hitler, I love Nazis.’ Something to that effect when he was there. And they took it out of the interview for whatever reason,” Lathan said.
The sources’ claims raise numerous questions about his collaborators in business, fashion and music, as well as the Kardashian family — namely, whether a large number of people had been aware of West’s beliefs for years, and had brushed them off, helped West hide them or, perhaps, shared the rapper’s antisemitism.
What anyone could have done to dissuade West, however, is unclear; in a song called “No Mistakes” on the 2018 album nearly titled “Hitler,” the artist rapped: “I don’t take advice from people less successful than me.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
