Kanye West had an “obsession” with Adolf Hitler, praised the genocidal fascist dictator responsible for 17 million deaths for all he was able to achieve and for the power he was able accumulate, and even wanted to name his 2018 album “Hitler,” according to a CNN report.
“He would praise Hitler by saying how incredible it was that he was able to accumulate so much power and would talk about all the great things he and the Nazi Party achieved for the German people,” a business executive who worked for West, now known officially as “Ye,” told CNN.
That executive also “told CNN that the artist created a hostile work environment, in part through his ‘obsession’ with Hitler.” He “reached a settlement with West and some of his companies over workplace complaints, including harassment, which CNN has reviewed.”
He also said “that West spoke openly about reading ‘Mein Kampf,’ Hitler’s 1925 autobiographical manifesto and expressed his ‘admiration’ for the Nazis and Hitler for their use of propaganda.”
CNN adds that Van Lathan Jr. a former TMZ employee, confirmed he has heard West make antisemitic remarks.
“’I already heard him say that stuff before at TMZ,’” Lathan said during an episode of the ‘Higher Learning’ podcast earlier this month,” CNN reported.
“I mean, I was taken aback because that type of antisemitic talk is disgusting. It’s like, I’m taken aback any time anyone does that, right? But as far as [West], I knew that that was in him because when he came to TMZ, he said that stuff and they took it out of the interview. … He said something like, ‘I love Hitler, I love Nazis.’ Something to that effect when he was there. And they took it out of the interview for whatever reason. It wasn’t my decision.”
West’s antisemitism, which can be traced back nearly a decade, has made top headlines in the past few weeks after VICE reported on leaked antisemitic and other remarks he made to Fox News that were not included in his interview with Tucker Carlson.
West ran for president as an independent in 2020 but reportedly had “regular” conversations with Jared Kushner.