Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, continued his string of antisemitic provocations on Thursday as he released a new music video for a song called “Heil Hitler.”
“All my n****s Nazis, n***a, heil Hitler,” Ye sings on the song’s synth-heavy chorus, over video of three rows of Black men wearing animal skins and repeating the lyrics.
The track ends with a lengthy sample from a Hitler speech, which Ye also quoted on his X account: ‘Whether you think my work is right, whether you believe that I have been diligent. That I have worked, that I have stood up for you during these years, that I have used my time decently in the service of my people. You cast your vote now, if yes, then stand up for me as I stood up for you.’ “
Ye was one of the most popular and influential musicians in the world before publicly embracing antisemitic beliefs in 2022. Since then he has lost lucrative corporate partnerships, the support of much of the music industry and, he claims, custody of his children from ex-wife Kim Kardashian, while continuing to spread antisemitism despite the occasional promise to stop.
Ye aired some of those grievances on the track, which opens with the lines, “Man these people took my kids from me, then they froze my bank account. I got so much anger in me, got no way to take it out. Think I’m stuck in the matrix.”
He soon segues into the line, “So I became a Nazi, yeah, bitch, I’m the villain.”
As of Thursday afternoon the music video was still playable on Ye’s X account, though not on his YouTube account. Multiple versions of the song uploaded to SoundCloud also appear to have been removed; on X, Ye claimed it had been “banned by all digital streaming platforms.”
Ye’s team says the song will be featured on his upcoming album “Cuck” (Internet slang for “cuckold,” a term for a husband whose wife is unfaithful) which also includes tracks titled “Gas Chambers,” “WW3” and “Hitler Ye and Jesus.” The album art depicts two figures wearing hooded Ku Klux Klan-like robes in different colors, while the art for the “Heil Hitler” song shows a swastika-like doodle.
The American Jewish Committee quickly condemned the song. “This is blatant antisemitism, and it’s disgusting,” CEO Ted Deutch said in a statement. “Ye is profiting off of Jew-hatred, and the music industry needs to step up and speak out against this obscenity.”
The song follows a brief effort by Ye, a onetime fashion maven, to sell swastika-emblazoned T-shirts online. He purchased a Super Bowl television ad this year to sell the shirts.
In recent weeks Ye has posted media of himself with white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, with whom he dined with President Donald Trump in 2022. “I’m here with my white supremacist homeboy Nick. We’re back,” Ye said while wearing a swastika necklace in a video he posted, then deleted, last month.
Fuentes celebrated the new song on X in advance of its release, writing, “Imagine 50,000 people in a stadium on their feet singing every word.”
While promoting “Heil Hitler,” Ye also took a moment to praise Jewish livestreamer Adin Ross, calling him “a positive person” and celebrating a recent livestream Ross held with the Jewish rapper Drake. In February during a feud with Ross, Ye wrote on X, “JEWS ARE ARROGANT AND THINK THEY CAN SPEAK TO ANYONE THEY WANT ANY KIND OF WAY THATS WHY EVERY JEWISH WIFE IS A BITCH,” and posted a photo of him texting the streamer a Holocaust reference: “HOW YALL SAY IT NEVER AGAIN.”
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