In a statement on Monday, Ye apologized for a history of “impulsive” behavior, including using antisemitic imagery and describing himself as a Nazi.
The musician and fashion mogul formerly known as Kanye West took out a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal addressed to “To Those I’ve Hurt.” He attributed his conduct to his bipolar diagnosis and an undiagnosed brain injury. In the statement, he said that “I am not a Nazi or antisemite. I love Jewish people.”
Ye explained that there was damage to the right frontal lobe of his brain after a car accident in 2002. Until 2023, he wrote in the letter, the injury had gone undiagnosed. That accident inspired his first single, “Through the Wire,” which he recorded with his jaw wired shut.
Beginning in 2022, Ye has steadily made antisemitic and hateful statements. In an appearance that year on Alex Jones’s “Infowars,” the musician denied the Holocaust, proclaimed he was a Nazi and said he loved Adolf Hitler.
On Monday, he accounted for those actions by connecting them to his various health struggles. “One of the difficult aspects of having bipolar type-1 are the disconnect moments — many of which I still cannot recall — that lead to poor judgment and reckless behavior that oftentimes feels like an out-of-body experience,” he wrote. “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.”
The Post has reached out to Ye’s team for comment and hasn’t heard back.
He also took time to apologize to the Black community, stating that it is the foundation of who he is. “My words as a leader in my community have real global impact and influence,” he said. “In my mania, I lost sight of that.”
Ye’s apology comes almost a year after he doubled down again on antisemitic beliefs, while selling a swastika T-shirt on his website and advertising it during the Super Bowl. In February, a female Jewish former employee accused him of making a slew of antisemitic and sexist comments in a lawsuit, while in May, he released a song entitled “Heil Hitler,” which sampled a speech from Hitler.
His initial series of antisemitic remarks in 2022 led to companies such as Adidas, Gap and Universal Music Group to cut ties with him. In early 2023, the Anti-Defamation League said that it had counted at least 30 antisemitic incidents that directly referenced Ye. Listeners weren’t as quick to let go: his 2024 collaboration with rapper Ty Dolla Sign “Carnival” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The statement in the Wall Street Journal isn’t Ye’s first apology for his antisemitic comments. In 2023, he shared a statement in Hebrew on his Instagram page committing to making amends with the Jewish community. In November, Ye met with rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto and used a translator to communicate his desire to take accountability for his comments.
“And I really just appreciate you embracing me with open arms and allowing me to make amends,” he said to Pinto. “This is beginning in the first steps, and the first brick by brick to build, to build back the strong walls”
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