The US rapper-turned-designer said it had always been his “dream” to wear the Nazi symbol in public.
Ye, the controversial American rapper formerly known as Kanye West, was spotted in Los Angeles on Thursday wearing a white T-shirt featuring a Swastika. The design appears to be the same one he promoted on his website before it was taken down.
In a short video published by TMZ the following day, the rapper is seen chatting with a group of men before noticing the camera. He then walks toward it, ensuring an unobstructed view of the design.
“It was always a dream of mine to walk around with a Swastika T on,” Ye wrote in a now deleted post on X (formerly Twitter) the same day. He previously described the design as his “greatest performance art piece thus far,” adding, “I’ve wanted to make this tee shirt for years.”
The sighting follows Ye’s latest provocation—a Super Bowl ad directing viewers to a merchandise store that only sold a $20 swastika T-shirt. The ad showed Ye filming himself in a dentist’s chair before flashing a link to his online store. Those who visited the site found only one item for sale, labeled “HH-01.”
The design was widely condemned, with the Anti-Defamation League linking the name to the Nazi salute “Heil Hitler.” Shopify shut down the website, stating that Ye “did not engage in authentic commerce practices” and violated its terms of service.
The latest incident adds to Ye’s history of antisemitic controversies. Adidas cut ties with him in October 2022 after he praised Adolf Hitler and denied the Holocaust during an interview on Infowars. “I see good things about Hitler,” he said at the time. Two months later, he declared “I am a Nazi” during another Infowars interview with Alex Jones. He later blamed the statement on drinking too much Hennessy.
More companies and collaborators have since distanced themselves from the rapper. Russian designer Gosha Rubchinsky, who worked with Ye on the “Black Dogs” collection and was appointed head of design for Yeezy in December 2023, said last month that he was ending his partnership with Ye. Although Rubchinsky did not publicly comment on West’s controversies, the announcement was made after the rapper posted several antisemitic statements, identified himself as a Nazi, and professed his admiration for Adolf Hitler in February this year.
Ye, a 24-time Grammy Award winner, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2016 and has spoken about his struggles with mental health. Last month, he revealed he had also been diagnosed with autism and had stopped taking his medication after learning he was misdiagnosed. “I haven’t taken the medication since I found out it wasn’t bipolar,” he said on The Download podcast, adding, “It’s worth the ramp-up, as long as y’all get the creativity.”
