Kanye West attends the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on Feb. 9, 2020 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Rich Fury/VF20/GI for Vanity Fair
Kanye West has issued an apology to the Jewish community for his antisemitic remarks ahead of his Vultures album release.
The 46-year-old rapper, who now goes by Ye, took to social media early Tuesday morning (Dec. 26) to share his regrets over comments in a statement written in Hebrew.
“I sincerely apologize to the Jewish community for any unintended outburst caused by my words or actions,” Ye wrote on Instagram. “It was not my intention to offend or demean, and I deeply regret any pain I may have caused. I am committed to starting with myself and learning from this experience to ensure greater sensitivity and understanding in the future. Your forgiveness is important to me, and I am committed to making amends and promoting unity.”
In 2022, Ye faced major backlash after making a series of antisemitic statements. After receiving blowback for wearing a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt in October 2022 at Paris Fashion Week, the rapper tweeted that he was going to go “death con 3” on Jewish people. This began a string of hate-speech-filled interviews, which reached an even more disturbing level when he appeared on Alex Jones’ InfoWars and said, “I see good things about Hitler,” among other hateful rhetoric.
Earlier this month, during a listening party in Miami for his oft-delayed collaborative album, Vultures, with Ty Dolla $ign, Ye appeared onstage wearing what appeared to be a black Ku Klux Klan-style hood to perform the project’s title track.
“I ain’t antisemitic/ I just f—ed a Jewish b—-,” he rapped during the song, adding to his controversial antisemitic statements from the prior year.
The release date for Vultures has been delayed several times in recent weeks. The album is now expected to arrive on Jan. 12, Ye’s reps told Billboard in late December. It was previously scheduled for release on New Year’s Eve (Dec. 31).
See Ye’s apology post on Instagram below.
