Kanye West has issued a lengthy public apology addressing his previouse antisemitism tirade.
The rapper, now known as Ye, has taken out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal apologizing for his antisemitic behavior. “I am not a Nazi or an antisemite,” he wrote. “I love Jewish people.”
In the apology, titled “To Those I’ve Hurt,” Ye citied his inflammatory actions, including making profoundly offensive statements and selling T-shirts bearing swastikas, to his bipolar-1 disorder, which he said he developed as a result of medical oversight failing to diagnose a frontal-lobe injury sustained in a car crash in 2002.
“I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions”
He detailed his experience with bipolar disorder and how the mental illness sent him into a manic state that he wasn’t able to grasp. “You think everyone else is overreacting,” he said. “You feel like you’re seeing the world more clearly than ever, when in reality you’re losing your grip entirely.”
The rapper, who shares four children with Kim Kardashian, admitted that he “lost touch with reality.” He wrote, “Some of the people I love the most, I treated the worst. You endured fear, confusion, humiliation, and the exhaustion of trying to love someone who was, at times, unrecognizable. Looking back, I became detached from my true self.”
West added, “I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change. It does not excuse what I did, though. I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people.”
He turned his attention to the Black community, “which held me down through all of the highs and lows and the darkest of times.” Noting that the community is “the foundation of who I am,” West apologized for letting them down. “I love us,” he said.
The WSJ letter arrives three years after West issued an apology to the Jewish community. The “Jesus Walks” rapper was widely condemned after writing on X in October 2022 that he was “going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE … You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.” He posted a screenshot of a conversation with the rapper Diddy, in which West wrote: “Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me.”
The message also arrives just days before the release of his next album, Bully. The artist says he is focusing on treatment, accountability, and long-term change.