How Kanye West went from celebrated artist to a megaphone for hate and division

In October 2022, Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West) drew widespread condemnation for wearing a White Lives Matter T-shirt at his Yeezy fashion show during Paris Fashion Week. 

In the weeks that followed, he made a series of antisemitic statements on social media. When his comments made headlines, Ye doubled down by sharing dangerous conspiracy theories and inflammatory statements during several interviews. Many people, including Ye's former collaborators, have expressed concern about how he's using his massive fan base to spread hateful ideology. 

In the documentary The Trouble with KanYe, journalist Mobeen Azhar investigates the lead-up to these events in an effort to learn how one of America's most celebrated artists became a megaphone for hate and division. 

From provocative rapper to born-again Christian

"Ye has been at the forefront of popular culture for almost 20 years," says Azhar in the documentary. "After releasing his debut single in 2003, he'd go on to sell millions of records and win critical acclaim. Later launching a billion-dollar fashion empire, he was seen by many as a pioneer, infamous for going off script and sharing his unfiltered political views." 

In 2019, Ye bought a ranch in Cody, Wyoming, for a reported $14 million. 

At the time, he spoke about how he planned to bring prosperity to his new community — and America — by bringing the production of his multi-billion-dollar fashion brand to the city. He positioned himself as a political leader who was going to create jobs, and in 2020, he launched his first presidential bid from Cody. 

In the film, Azhar travels to Cody to dig deeper into the time and place that marked a drastic shift in Ye's public persona from provocative rapper to born-again Christian. 

The music video for Closed on Sunday, a song from his gospel album Jesus Is King, was shot at his Cody ranch and projected the image of Ye as a God-fearing family man.

"If you were looking at the story of Kanye West in music, you'd start … in Chicago," Azhar says. 

"But that isn't the Kanye that I'm interested in … because the latest incarnation of Kanye is Ye, and [Cody] is the place where he launched his 2020 bid to become the president. It's where he really started wearing his politics and his theology on his sleeve."

In The Trouble with KanYe, Azhar meets with John Boyd, a spiritual adviser who led Bible study sessions at Ye's ranch before playing a key role in his campaign. 

Boyd shares the inside story of Ye's only presidential rally, in South Carolina: instead of sharing his vision for the future of America, Ye went off script, criticizing abolitionist Harriet Tubman, claiming she didn't free the slaves, and sharing his anti-abortion views. The event had an unexpected outcome: Ye was celebrated by right-wing news media. 

"He gained a lot of respect from a lot of people on the right just for being so bold on their core issues," says Boyd.

In the weeks that followed the rally, the petitions that Ye had submitted in several states to get his name on the ballot were deemed incomplete. He later tweeted that he may postpone his presidential run until 2024. 

Throwing himself on 'the pyre of white supremacy'

Shifting his focus to the present, Azhar travels to Los Angeles, where Ye's 2024 presidential campaign is taking shape. Ye has even gone so far as to join forces with Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist livestreamer who's notorious for his antisemitism, misogyny, homophobia and racism. 

While in L.A., Azhar looks into Ye's almost 20-year career as a critically acclaimed rapper and producer. Once seen as someone who brought a new sound and a fresh perspective to the genre, Ye's recent behaviour has prompted a re-evaluation of his past work.  

For insights into Ye's shifting motivations, Azhar meets with Ye's longtime musical collaborator Malik Yusef. 

Yusef explains that the music he and Ye worked on together was once a vehicle to "wake people up to the true plight of African people … in this day and age." He wonders why Ye has now decided to throw himself on "the pyre of white supremacy."

Digging deeper into the impact of Ye's actions, Azhar explores the bigger picture: a surge of white nationalism and antisemitism across America and the world. 

In response to his antisemitic statements and actions like wearing a White Lives Matter T-shirt, a long line of companies cut ties with Ye. Adidas released a statement in October 2022 that read, "Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Ye's recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous."

'He's falling into that embrace'

In 2016, Ye was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. 

"Ye's outbursts have fuelled a very public conversation about hate speech from someone that has a documented mental health condition," says Azhar. "I want to know what role, if any, Ye's bipolar diagnosis has to play." 

He meets with Bassey Ikpi, a mental health advocate who wrote a book about her own experiences after being diagnosed as bipolar. 

She describes some of the symptoms of the disorder, which include consistent high energy, an inability to discern when it's appropriate to say certain things, and being unable to regulate your moods — many of which can be seen in Ye's very public life. 

"Someone like you or I," she tells Azhar, "we would eventually lose friends and not have replacements. We would eventually lose money. So, our rock bottom … would come much quicker. [Ye has] been embraced by this new group of people, and he's falling into that embrace," Ikpi says.

The impact of Ye's words in the real world

In December 2022, Ye appeared on InfoWars, an online talk show hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. He doubled down on his bigotry in front of a reported audience of millions, saying, "I like Hitler" and "Hitler has a lot of redeeming qualities." 

The impact of Ye's words spilled into the real world; several hate crimes were committed in his name. Two weeks after his appearance on InfoWars, a 63-year-old man was assaulted in Central Park; according to news reports, his attacker spewed antisemitic rhetoric and made a reference to Kanye West before attacking the victim. 

In another incident in early 2023, a Jewish man had his nose broken by an assailant whose friend reportedly shouted, "Get him for Kanye." 

The search for Ye

After speaking to Ye's former friends and collaborators, Azhar tries to reach him directly — but getting hold of a celebrity with no PR team, no record deal and no agent isn't easy. Azhar writes a letter to Ye, hoping to deliver it to him through a church he'd seen Ye visit in a video. 

The letter isn't successful, but Azhar is given a phone number that he's told is a direct line to Ye — and he believes Ye has a responsibility to answer some questions about the hate his message is inspiring.

Watch The Trouble with KanYe on CBC Gem.