Kanye’s recent antisemitic rants have put the rapper in hot water. It has since taken on a new heap of controversy as it was reported earlier that the Chicago native expressed an adoration for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Now, a new report is detailing that Ye was responsible paying off a former employee who claimed he praised the Nazi leader, per NBC.
The outlet reports that Ye paid a settlement to the former employee. That employee also says the rapper mentioned conspiracy theories about Jewish people and applauded Hitler and Nazis. NBC also took accounts of six other people who said they worked with Ye or knew him professionally.
NBC spoke to Ryder Ripps who worked with Ye from 2014 and 2018. He told them, “With this pattern that’s happening and with the doubling and tripling down of all this, it’s pretty obvious that this is some kind of disgusting, hate-filled, strange Nazi obsession.” He continued, “There is a line, and I think, like, he’s crossed. I genuinely think that he’s crossed it with his current actions and beyond just, like, this is offensive, like these words are offensive. Because I’ve seen an uptick of people, like, personally attacking me… like calling me a Jew on Instagram and Twitter.”
Another former employee (who was not named in the report) worked with the Yeezy designer for three years. The ex-employee said that Ye would bring up his adoration for Hitler in casual conversations.
“I feel like he was just kind of, like, looking around, like, seeing, like, how are people reacting?” the ex-employee said. “He would say, ‘I even love Hitler,’ and then he would, like, pause for reactions.”
During an apparel meeting, the former employee said that Ye told the group that Hitler “had some good qualities” and that “he wasn’t all bad.”
“He would kind of present things as, like, questions to ask people their opinion on something, but then he would go really hard and aggressive on, like, what he thought about it and on really just topics that would upset people, like there were people always visibly upset,” the former employee said.
The unnamed ex-employee said they lost count of how many nondisclosure agreements they signed while working with Ye. Three other employees also noted that Ye asked them to sign more than one NDA.
The alleged settlement was reviewed by the outlet but they did not disclose how much the former employee was (if any) given monetarily. Ye has denied the claims made by the former employee in the agreement.