Kanye West is the human equivalent of seeing a fancy car wrecked on the freeway. You don’t want to rubberneck but you also can’t look away from the schadenfreude. It seems like every other day West or his wife make headlines for some new idiotic or offensive thing. If they’re not LARPing as billionaires, then West is pretending to run for president. One way or the other, he’s always sucking up to Donald Trump’s dragon energy. Recently released documents prove Kanye may play the president’s lapdog for more than publicity.
Kanye and his wife’s clothing brand’s use of sweatshops is old news. Also old news is how West sells plain white T-shirts for $120 a pop and kicks for a whopping $250. A real man of the people. This new scandal is far worse, though. West took between $2 to $5 million from a fund meant to help small businesses devastated by the pandemic. He is literally robbing from the sick to give to himself and his wealthy wife, which is something Trump might admire. Maybe West and Trump really are kindred spirits, or maybe they’re both just narcissistic bipolar jerks? In this list, we look back on Kanye’s many scandals, as well as getting to the bottom of his most recent one.
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Kanye Bailout
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Young Yeezy
Before West donned his MAGA hat, he was a visionary young rapper and producer. His first solo studio album, The College Dropout, bristled with raw energy and emotional vulnerability, making his future false shows of bravado ring all the hollower.
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An Honest Diss
Soon after releasing his second album, West made waves when he said then-President Bush didn’t care about black people. We miss when West’s word diarrhea fought for good and made Mike Meyers look like Shrek.
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Kanye vs. Swift
West’s next big public scandal came in 2009 when he started a decade-long feud with Taylor Swift by yoinking her mike at the VMAs. Swifties and Yaysayers are still battling to this day, though it was lot cuter in 2009.
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The Bromance
The Bromance between West and Trump began when the rapper name-dropped the then reality TV show host in his 2010 track “So Appalled.” West quoted Trump’s catchphrase, "You're fired," which may take on a whole new level of ironic meaning come this November.
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In a Dark Tower
Things between West and Big Orange started getting hot and heavy when the rapper visited the then President-elect at Trump Tower in December of 2016. Though neither man confirmed what they discussed, the meeting sure seems a little shadier given recent revelations.
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Kanye 4 MAGA
Things got worse once Trump took office, both for Kanye and the world at large. When West was on SNL in 2018, he famously donned a MAGA hat and gave an impromptu pro-Trump speech, which Pete Davidson hilariously deconstructed the following week.
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Kanye 4 President
West’s increasingly erratic behavior hit a new high mark when he recently announced his intention to run for president in 2020. Whether it’s a trick or a bad joke, given that West has missed the filing deadline in multiple states, we’re thinking it’s probably just West having another manic episode.
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Kanye 4 Kanye
It was recently revealed that Kanye’s company Yeezy received between $2 to $5 million from a fund meant to help small businesses suffering from the pandemic, which could be a payoff or a less serious form of graft. Either way, we think West should change his company’s name from Yeezy to Sleezy.
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Above the Law
West getting aid money meant for small businesses to support his luxury clothing brand and new mega mansion is so much worse than his previous scandals. The fact his wife’s cosmetic business did the same thing adds insult to injury, but since they’re rich celebrities, we doubt they’ll ever be punished for their wrongdoings.
