Kanye West is known for having made controversial statements on a variety of topics over the course of his career. However, he truly drew a considerable amount of backlash in 2022 when he began making antisemitic comments. Those sentiments have since cost West on both professional and personal levels. While the rapper was posting his views, there were people who bore witness, including one of his collaborators, Dave Blunts. Now, Blunts is sharing candid thoughts on what it was like when West was posting his opinions.
Dave Blunts rose to prominence in 2024, and the rapper has since released three studio albums. More recently, Blunts has been working with Kanye West on the latter’s upcoming album, In a Perfect World. Much of the musical compilation’s conception coincided with West’s viral tirades against people of the Jewish faith. While being interviewed by VladTV (on YouTube), Blunts explained that in some ways he had to become West while writing new music for him and discussed how the antisemitic remarks intersected with their collaboration:
That shit was like a blur, and I was getting, like, lost in the character. For me, it was a character, [because] I was like, being [Ye]. Obviously, he’s not a character, but shit, man. I mean, the shit he shared, his gripes on Twitter… So all the gripes he had is out there, all those tweets… He would tell me these things before he would tweet them. So yeah, I mean, that’s what his gripes was, [it was] whatever was on his Twitter.
During the fall of 2022, the “Flashing Lights” rapper made headlines when he shared a series of inflammatory tweets on Twitter. In one of the messages he shared, Ye said that he wanted to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” He expanded on those views when he appeared on a since-removed episode of the Drink Champs podcast. Ye mused that he could “say antisemitic things, and Adidas can’t drop [him.” However, Adidas did eventually drop him along with other brands, leading the artist to say he’d been “beat to a pulp.”
Kanye West has since addressed the “demons” he was apparently dealing with when making the anti-Jewish statements. At one point, he seemed to poke fun at his own comments by saying that Jonah Hill’s 21 Jump Street made him change his ways. West seemed to give a more definitive answer on his views earlier this year, as he claimed on social media that he was “done with antisemitism.” Dave Blunts back up that assertion during his interview:
He’s not on that anymore, and he’s doing better now.
Nevertheless, In a Perfect World has caused controversy for a few reasons. One of its singles, “Heil, Hitler,” drew backlash in several circles. Additionally, the song “Cousins” sparked an entirely different conversation. Ye claimed through that particular track that he had an incestous relationship with one of his cousins when he was younger. The artist also shared details about the purported situation by way of a NSFW social media post.
As of this writing, an official release date has yet to be announced for Kanye West and Dave Blunts’ album. Whether the new music ignites more controversy remains to be seen, and time will also tell if West shares any additional antisemitic thoughts.
