Breaking Down Kanye West's Internet Tirades
If you thought Kanye West's social media slander against Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson was over, think again.
Between a messy divorce with estranged wife Kim Kardashian, a passionate fling (and subsequent break up) with actress Julia Fox, and a hate campaign launched against comedian Pete Davidson, rapper Kanye West (now known as Ye) has been in a number of controversies since the start of the new year.
Chicago West's Birthday Party
Ye's tirade seemed to begin after posting a rueful video on Instagram with claims that Kardashian and the rest of her family were preventing him from joining his daughter Chicago's birthday party. "America saw you try to kidnap my daughter on her birthday by not providing the address," wrote the rapper in a comment on Kardashian's statement explaining the birthday party situation.
Soon after the birthday party barring came the TikTok complaints. The @kimandnorth account on the short video platform, run by Kardashian herself, features family-friendly videos of the pair's daughter North West lip-syncing to songs, creating special FX makeup looks, and showing her audience a variety of activities that often involve other members of the Kardashian clan.
What seemed innocuous enough led Ye to take to Instagram to speak out against his daughter's social media activity on February 4. These complaints led Kardashian to respond in an Instagram story defending her daughter's chosen form of "self-expression."
Valentine's Day
Things took a turn around Valentine's Day when Kardashian was spotted enjoying a romantic dinner date with Davidson in his hometown of New York City. Desires to win Kardashian back and rekindle his family unit led Ye to wage war against the Saturday Night Live star, referring to him only as "SKETE" and leaking text messages between the two, in which Ye wrote that Davidson will "NEVER MEET [HIS] CHILDREN" in response to Davidson's attempt to make amends.
Though his "vision may be Krystal Klear," as declared in Ye's Valentine's extravagant gift to his soon-to-be ex-wife, his methods may not be as effective. In a series of leaked text messages between the two, Kardashian asked him to revoke statements that prompted his fans to harass Davidson in the streets.
The day after, on February 15, people assumed his tirade was over after he wiped his Instagram clean of any signs of drama. In a seemingly PR-approved post, he released the following statement in his photo caption:
Ye then shifted his focus to the release of his new album Donda 2, the sequel to the 2021 album Donda, which will be exclusively released on a $200 Stem Player. In his announcement, he wrote the following in an Instagram post:
"Donda 2 will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player. Not on Apple Amazon Spotify or YouTube. Today artists get just 12% of the money the industry makes. It’s time to free music from this oppressive system. It’s time to take control and build our own. Go to stemplayer.com now to order."
Whether it's due to the high cost to listen to the album, his new campaign against Kris Jenner's partner Corey Gamble, or fatigue from fans following previous Internet attacks, public reception in the wake of the Donda 2 has been mixed.
March 13
On Sunday, March 13, Ye posted a now-deleted Instagram video where he expressed his concern that Kardashian is still allowing North to post on TikTok.
“I just got off the phone with Kim. I told her to stop antagonizing me with this TikTok thing,” the rapper revealed. “I said, ‘It’s never again.’ I am her father. I know y’all don’t respect fathers and the idea of family and the media tries to promote something. I said, 'I am not allowing my daughter to be used by TikTok, by Disney. I have a say-so.'”
Ye also expressed his anger that he didn’t have a choice in the school his kids attend in California, Sierra Canyon. “And when people say, ‘they’re gonna use this [against] you in court,’ I didn’t even have a say-so whether or not they went to Sierra Canyon,” he said. “There’s no such thing as 50-50 custody in society today. It always leans toward the mom. I don’t have custody, I had to fight to have my kids not on TikTok.” The rapper also called out political commentator D.L. Hughley, calling him a pawn.
He also took the time to defend Tristan Thompson, who co-parents his daughter True with Khloé Kardashian, saying they’ve never been able to decide where their kids are educated. “It’s always been a gang. It’s like we’ve never had Christmas any place else other than one location,” Ye said in reference to Kris Jenner’s famous Christmas parties.
On the same day, Davidson, who is no longer on Instagram, used his friend’s account to defend himself and Kim by sharing text messages he exchanged with Ye. Comedian @davesirus posted screenshots from Davidson’s and Ye’s text chain; Sirus has since made the account private. Ye addressed the same text chain in another now-deleted video.
Revealing more private conversations, Ye alleged that Kim purposefully keeps him away from his children:
“When we had the Donda 2 release in Miami, I got a flight for all of my kids to come from Calabasas to Miami. Then, [an] assistant hit me [and said], 'You know, the kids are there.' When the plane took off, I got a text from Kim that said, 'North won’t be on the plane.' You see, this is the kind of stuff that’s just [like] the Chicago birthday party, and I’m glad that y’all saw in the Variety piece what I have to deal with.”
However, Ye also defended Kim after her comments that women in business need to work harder were criticized online. "That’s just my heart as a dad … to protect at all cost," Ye said.
Ye's Instagram Ban
In a series of Instagram posts on March 16, Ye has now set his sights on talk show host and comedian Trevor Noah following a segment of The Daily Show in which Noah commented on the rapper's continued harassment of his ex.
"You may not feel sorry for Kim because she's rich and famous, but what she's going through is terrifying to watch," said Noah, who believes that Ye's attacks on Kardashian "shines a spotlight on what so many women go through when they choose to leave."
In direct response to Noah's criticisms, West uploaded now-deleted posts calling Noah racial slurs in reference to his South African identity. Instagram swiftly reacted by placing West on a 24-hour post ban, citing violations of hate speech, harassment, and bullying policies.
TMZ reported that a representative of Meta, Instagram's parent company overseeing the ban, also plans to take further action against Ye if harassment on the app continues once the 24-hour ban is lifted.
