We’re Really Doing This Again
Only now, after Kanye West sold a T-shirt with a swastika on it, is Ty Dolla $ign speaking out against his collaborator.
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About a year after companies started dropping Kanye West over his antisemitism and racism in 2022, reports emerged that West (then — still? — going by Ye) was collaborating with singer Ty Dolla $ign. It turned out the pair were plotting a whole project together, ¥$, and a trilogy of Vultures albums, two of which they released last year. But only now, after West sold a T-shirt with a swastika on it and went on an antisemitic tirade on X, is Ty speaking out against his collaborator. Or apparently, anyway. “I do not condone ANY form of hate speech towards ANYBODY,” he wrote in an Instagram Story on February 12. Ty declined to name West in the message — perhaps conveniently, since his only Instagram post is a teaser of a new song with West.
West’s antisemitism shouldn’t have been news to Ty. The pair had to change the cover of Vultures 1 over allegations of antisemitism, after it featured a painting by Nazi-associated artist Casper David Friedrich and typography reminiscent of Nazi-sympathizing metal band Burzum. (Shortly after, Ye apologized to the Jewish community for his “unintended outburst” of antisemitism.) Yet Ty continued working with West, sending Vultures 1 and the single “Carnival” to No. 1, and following it up with Vultures 2 a few months later. Vultures 3 still hangs in the balance. (West’s other recent collaborators, like “Carnival” rappers Playboi Carti and Rich the Kid, have remained quiet over his new acts of antisemitism.)
Ty Dolla $ign isn’t the only one feigning surprise at West’s recent actions. West’s new agent, Daniel McCartney at 33 & West, also dropped the rapper “due to his harmful and hateful remarks,” McCartney said in an Instagram Story on February 10. Déjà vu much? After his last round of antisemitism in 2022, West was dropped by his then-agency CAA. McCartney and 33 & West had only been working with West since last May — only after a failed attempt by another agent, Cara Lewis, to rehab West’s career earlier that year. (Lewis had previously been West’s longtime agent before he fired her in 2016.)
As long as West continues making music, he’ll be able to find willing collaborators in the industry. But more than ever, these people can’t say they didn’t know what they were getting into.
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