I thought Kanye West had hit rock bottom – he’s proved me wrong

It turns out that rock bottom is actually lower than I thought. Every time I think Kanye West has plumbed the depths of his behaviour, he digs a little deeper and finds another creative way to make me ashamed to have ever enjoyed his music. The rapper’s latest dose of second-hand embarrassment came in the form of a sexist, antisemitic tirade on X, in which he professed his love for Hitler, claimed to have dominion over his wife and accused Elon Musk of stealing his ‘Nazi swag’ after *that* infamous salute at Donald Trump’s inauguration.

He even used his X account, which he has subsequently deleted, to show his support for fellow rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs. That’s the same Combs who, if you haven’t been following the news, is currently awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video.

Up Next. He also flooded his feed with porn, which might seem acceptable now Elon Musk has made the platform something of a wild west, but still isn’t something you want jumping out at you while you’re scrolling at work – or, in the case of his younger fans, at school. Of course, as is often the case with Kanye, most of us can’t help but gawp at his continuing descent into hate and depravity – but maybe this latest string of outbursts should be a sign to us all that it’s finally time to stop fuelling him with our attention.

Just in case you were wondering whether his pro-Nazi stance was some misguided attempt at satire, at the time of writing the only thing that can be purchased from Kanye’s website is a t-shirt with a swastika emblazoned on it. And you thought those Yeezy trainers were bad. I’m Jewish, so seeing West double down on his antisemitism is especially heartbreaking for me as somebody who used to genuinely enjoy his music.

I’m used to celebrities I like letting me down – two of my favourite movies, Se7en and the Usual Suspects, star Kevin Spacey, but West is going out of his way to harm the Jewish community in a way that feels exceptionally malicious and personal. His recent stunt at the Grammys, which he gatecrashed with basically nude wife Bianca Censori in tow, has bizarrely ended up one of his least objectionable recent behaviours.

At this point it almost seems quaint. This may be news to you, and it’s perfectly understandable if this stuff went over your head. At this point, ‘Kanye West does something horribly baffling or bafflingly horrible’, is something of an evergreen headline. Even his most ardent followers at this point must find it difficult to keep up. Compare that to his earlier major controversies in the 2000s, like when accused George Bush of not caring about Black people on live television in the wake of the president’s lacklustre Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, or the time he gate-crashed Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 VMAs.

Not only were these incidents significantly less harmful than his current fare (Taylor Swift seems to be doing OK…), but they actually contributed quite a lot to his ‘eccentric, misunderstood artist’ mystique. Sure, those may seem tame by today’s standards, but they stuck in the public consciousness. In comparison, Kanye’s latest outbursts just don’t have the same kind of staying power – as well as being, you know, morally abhorrent.

There’s been a lot of debate over the past few years about whether Kanye is doing all of this for attention, if he genuinely believes in what he’s saying, or if we’re effectively watching a live streamed mental breakdown. But after a certain point I’ve found that it doesn’t really matter all that much. West still has a pretty large fanbase, with almost 67 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

He was also due to appear on stream with popular vlogger Kai Cenat. That has now been cancelled, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was arranged despite the rapper’s well-known history of this exact type of behaviour. It’s an example of how the rapper still maintains a wide appeal. Not just among the far right and neo-Nazis, who have spent the past few days tweeting ‘Kanye was right’ in relation to his outburst, but among normal people who might be persuaded to view his behaviour as acceptable – or even as something to emulate.

Regardless of whether he actually holds them or not, he’s normalising these views among people at a time when they have heightened potential to cause real-world harm. Believe it or not, there was a time when Kanye West would be in the news because he released new music – you know, that thing that he used to be famous for. That thing I used to admire him for. At this point it’s difficult to know how best to approach Kanye’s tantrums. It’s tempting to say that the easiest way to get him to stop is to starve him of oxygen – stop reporting on his rants, don’t visit his website to see what kind of SS merch he is flogging, don’t tweet about him.