Kanye West’s anti-Semitic provocations reverberate across Los Angeles

Controversy has never been far behind Kanye West, the outspoken rap superstar who in an 18-year career has made headlines for feuds with Taylor Swift, lawsuits against his own record companies and flirtations with far-right politics.

But through it all, West has enjoyed the solid support of the entertainment and fashion industries thanks to his consistent ability to sell records, sportswear and concert tickets. Until now.

In the three weeks since he tweeted he would “go death con3 on Jewish people”, which was followed by other anti-Semitic comments, West has watched as the foundations of his $2bn entertainment and fashion empire have collapsed.

In recent days, he has been dropped by CAA, the Hollywood talent agency powerhouse; Adidas, which enjoyed a highly profitable relationship selling West’s sports shoe designs for almost a decade; his law firm, Greenberg Traurig; and Balenciaga, the high-end fashion house. Clothing retailer Gap has also cut ties with him.

“It has been such a spectacular unravelling,” said one music executive who had dealings with West.

In Los Angeles, a city familiar with celebrity scandals, West’s provocations have rattled Jewish citizens, who see a direct connection between West’s statements and a burst of anti-Semitic acts in the city.

Sam Yebri, a lawyer, was among the residents in West Los Angeles who found anti-Semitic leaflets left at his home last weekend. “We were shocked and horrified to find that on our doorstep a few feet from where our kids were playing,” said Yebri, a former board member of the LA chapter of the Anti-Defamation League.

On the same day, a group of white supremacists gathered on an overpass of the busy 405 interstate with a banner reading “Kanye is right about the Jews”, and another promoting a video platform operated by the Goyim Defense League, a network of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.

“Kanye is bringing a lot of eyeballs to anti-Semitism,” said Steven Ross, a history professor at the University of Southern California and author of Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America. “He’s using his celebrity for harm rather than good.”

The celebrity of the rapper, who now goes by the name Ye, is undeniable. West has won dozens of Grammy awards and sold more than 150mn records. “The music was always good,” said the music executive. “That was what always got him through,” despite the erratic behaviour.

His influence on popular culture only grew following his 2014 marriage to Kim Kardashian, the reality television star. The couple divorced last year. Kardashian this week said she stood “together with the Jewish community” and called on “the hateful rhetoric towards them to come to an immediate end”, without naming her former husband.  

The question many in Hollywood are asking is whether there is a road back for West, who has acknowledged that he suffers from bipolar disorder.

“He has a pretty big catalogue” and earned huge royalties, said one executive at a Hollywood talent agency. “The question is what future there might be.”  

West’s music remains on major streaming services, including Apple Music, Spotify and Amazon, as well as YouTube.

Universal Music and Sony Music, West’s longstanding partners, have denounced his statements but still earn money from his music. Many in the industry see a reluctance among music groups to remove West’s music from streaming platforms, in part due to fears of setting a precedent that might lead to calls for the removal of songs by other problematic artists.

West was hospitalised in 2016 and subsequently diagnosed as bipolar. Entertainment executives say a central question is whether anyone around him can ensure he is taking the proper medication following the death of his mother and his divorce from Kardashian.

“I don’t know who’s left — he had the Kardashians, his mom,” said the music executive. “I don’t know that there is anyone around him.”  

Despite the widespread condemnation and the impact on his business, he has continued  his provocations. On Wednesday, the day after he lost his deal with Adidas, he arrived unannounced at an LA office of Skechers, the footwear brand. According to Skechers, West was filming on the site without permission, and two of the company’s executives escorted him out of the building.

“We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate anti-Semitism or any other form of hate speech,” the company said.

Following his offensive tweet, Beth Kean, chief executive of the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles, invited West to tour the exhibitions via his one-time agents at CAA. West turned her down, then claimed in a podcast this week that black Americans were “still in the Holocaust”, adding that abortion is “genocide and population control . . . that is promoted by the music and the media that Black people make, that Jewish record labels get paid off of”.

The museum had increased security since West’s comments, she said.  

Steve Leder, senior rabbi at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Los Angeles’ oldest synagogue, said he had been hearing more “expressions of concern” from his congregation in recent weeks. But he also sees a silver lining.

“I think Kanye has galvanised the entertainment industry to get off the couch on anti-Semitism in a way I haven’t seen in my 35 years in Los Angeles,” he added.