While Kanye West certainly has loved to revel in controversy during his time in the media spotlight, many believed that the hip hop superstar had crossed a rather significant line recently when he made several antisemitic remarks on social media before finding himself banished by the online powers that be.
But these latest attacks on the Jewish people were not Kanye’s only affronts of the sort, and the entrepreneur was forced to settle with a former employer after similar and horrid comments he made in the workplace.
Ye, the artist previously known as Kanye West, paid a settlement to a former employee who alleged that he had used antisemitic language in the workplace, according to documents reviewed by NBC News.
In addition, six people who have worked with Ye or witnessed him in professional settings over the past five years said they had heard him praise Adolf Hitler or mention conspiracy theories about Jewish people. Three of them are former employees or collaborators, and they said they recalled multiple instances of Ye’s using antisemitic language. The three other people said they recalled a 2018 incident in which Ye went on an antisemitic tirade in an interview at TMZ’s offices.
Some specifics were being made public.
Ryder Ripps, a conceptual artist who worked with Ye on and off from 2014 to 2018, said he recalled multiple times when Ye spoke positively about Hitler and the Nazis or mentioned anti-Jewish conspiracies during meetings in the summer and fall of 2018. Ripps, who is Jewish, said he pushed back against Ye’s comments at the time but thought they “didn’t seem that dangerous.” After Ye’s most recent wave of statements, however, Ripps said he sees things differently. “This is dangerous and disgusting and actually violent,” he said.
“With this pattern that’s happening and with the doubling and tripling down of all this, it’s pretty obvious that this is some kind of disgusting, hate-filled, strange Nazi obsession,” Ripps said.
In regard to the comments that sparked the settlement, Ye has denied that they ever occurred, but given his recent turn toward prejudice, it could be hard to take his denial seriously.
