West with a beard and hooded black jacket on<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
Arguably one of the most influential artists and producers of his generation, Kanye West – now known as Ye – set a new bar for hip-hop production in the 2000s and 2010s.<\/strong><\/p>\n He got his start by creating beats for stars including Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, before chomping up the charts in his own right.<\/p>\n His 2003 debut single, Through the Wire, was written from a hospital bed and recorded with his head in a brace following a car accident.<\/p>\n For the next decade, he was unassailable, with hits such as Stronger, Gold Digger and Heartless pushing the boundaries of rap.<\/p>\n But over the years, his career has frequently been derailed by impulsive outbursts, antisemitic tirades and racist statements, among other controversies. The latest furore is over his headline booking at this year’s Wireless Festival.<\/a><\/p>\n Here are some of those significant – and, to many, offensive – moments.<\/p>\n West had a history of making rash statements before 2016. He famously interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Awards, saying Beyonc\u00e9 should have won the prize for best female artist.<\/p>\n A few years earlier, he went off script during a telethon to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina, declaring that the then-President George Bush “doesn’t care about black people”.<\/p>\n While many fans agreed with those statements – or at least understood the sentiments behind them – his later support for Bill Cosby, who was under suspicion of drugging and raping dozens of women, was harder to explain.<\/p>\n “BILL COSBY INNOCENT !!!!!!!!!!” wrote West in a 2016 social media post<\/a>, prompting an instant backlash.<\/p>\n The US comedian and TV star would later be found guilty of drugging and raping a woman at his Pennsylvania home in 2004, and sentenced to three to 10 years in prison. The judgement was later overturned.<\/a><\/p>\n But in March 2026, Cosby was ordered to pay $59.25m (\u00a344.1m) in damages<\/a> to a former waitress after finding he drugged and sexually assaulted her while taking her to one of his shows more than five decades ago.<\/p>\n West caused more controversy when he said the enslavement of African Americans over centuries may have been a “choice”.<\/a><\/p>\n “When you hear about slavery for 400 years… for 400 years? That sounds like a choice,” he said during an appearance on entertainment site TMZ in 2018.<\/p>\n “We’re mentally imprisoned,” the star added.<\/p>\n Black people were forcibly brought from Africa to the US during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and sold as slaves.<\/p>\n His comments sparked a backlash on social media with some X users suggesting the rapper should revisit the history books.<\/p>\n West later tweeted that his comments had been misinterpreted and that he “brought up the 400 years point because we can’t be mentally imprisoned for another 400 years”.<\/p>\n Having also carved out a career as a fashion designer, the star wore a T-shirt with a White Lives Matter slogan at his At his Yeezy SZN 9 show in Paris.<\/p>\n Anti-racism campaigners criticised the move for mocking the Black Lives Matter movement.<\/p>\n That was followed by a picture of the rapper alongside conservative commentator Candace Owens, wearing one of his T-shirts.<\/p>\n West in a white T-shirt with arms folded in front of Adidas\/Yeezy sign<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Soon after, the rapper got into a debate with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs over the T-shirt slogan.<\/p>\n West published a private text message exchange on Instagram between him and Combs – who is now in jail after being convicted on prostitution-related charges<\/a> – in which he claimed Combs was “controlled by Jewish people”.<\/p>\n The message played into a long-standing antisemitic conspiracy theory.<\/p>\n West’s account was later suspended.<\/p>\n The rapper responded by rejoining Twitter, as the platform was then known, and saying he would go “death con 3 On Jewish people”, earning him a second ban.<\/p>\n Both platforms removed West’s posts and said the star had violated policies on hate speech.<\/p>\n The previous week, West had given a lengthy interview to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.<\/p>\n Asked about the “White Lives Matter” t-shirt, he told Carlson it was “funny” and “the obvious thing to do”.<\/p>\n “The answer to why I wrote ‘White Lives Matter’ on a shirt is because they do,” he said.<\/p>\n When Carlson asked why the T-shirt had provoked such a backlash, West said that it was because he was not acting in a way the media approved of.<\/p>\n “Because the same people that have stripped us of our identity and labelled us as a colour, have told us what it means to be Black,” West said.<\/p>\n Later that year, brands begin to drop the star, including fashion house Balenciaga, talent rep Creative Artists Agency, JP Morgan bank and Gap.<\/p>\n By the end of the month, long-standing partner Adidas had cut ties with West<\/a>, saying it does “not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech”.<\/p>\n Cutting the partnership meant Adidas would make a net loss of \u00a3217m in 2022, it said.<\/p>\n‘Bill Cosby innocent’ post – 2016<\/h2>\n
Slavery sounded like ‘a choice’<\/h2>\n
Paris Fashion Week October 2022 – White lives matter T-shirt<\/h2>\n
Antisemitic posts see him banned on social media<\/h2>\n
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