Kanye West is trying to uncancel himself

Illustration by Andy Bunday

Has Kanye West successfully uncancelled himself? The 48-year-old hip-hop artist has a new album, Bully, and is set is to headline all three nights at the Wireless festival, in Finsbury Park, north London, in July. This will be his first UK performance since headlining Glastonbury in 2015.

Jewish groups have protested, citing West’s repeated antisemitic behaviour, including releasing a song called Heil Hitler, producing swastika T-shirts, announcing he is a Nazi, and posting about going “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE”.

In 2022, West was dropped by his talent agency CAA, the production company MRC and brands including Adidas (with which he collaborated on his clothing brand, Yeezy), Gap and Balenciaga. In the latest in a series of apologies and retractions, West took out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal in January, pleading for forgiveness, blaming his actions on a late-diagnosed bipolar condition caused by a car crash injury.

Regarding Wireless, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said West’s acts weren’t “reflective of London’s values”. The UK’s Jewish Leadership Council said booking West – now calling himself Ye – was “deeply irresponsible”, considering the capital’s record levels of antisemitism, including an arson attack on Hatzola charity ambulances  outside a Golders Green synagogue in March.

Raised in Chicago by his late mother, Donda – an academic who was chair of Chicago State University’s department of English and to whom he was close – West has sold an estimated 160m records. His 2004 debut, The College Dropout, was followed by albums such as Graduation (2007), My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) and Yeezus (2013). Forbes estimates his fortune at $400m.

Music journalist and author Mark Beaumont, who wrote the 2015 biography Kanye West: God and Monster (a title referencing West’s lyrics), tells me that, for a significant period, West “was absolutely leading the conversation. He was pioneering and revolutionary.”

“He was one of the most important artists of his generation,” says Daniel D’Addario, chief correspondent for Variety magazine. “In his artistic prime, he was definitional to: what is pop music? what is fashion? what is the aesthetic of the internet?”

D’Addario senses West’s creative peak has now passed: “He books festival gigs, he releases music – there’s a market for that. But even 10 years ago, he was one of the biggest acts in the world and he’s not any more.”

D’Addario feels that unlike former peers – Beyoncé, Drake – West not only saturated the market, but did so with offensive statements. “People lost sight of the musical genius and the fashion vision… It was: ‘Oh, Kanye’s doing a Kanye thing again.’”

There are complications inherent in West’s situation, including his bipolar condition. In a filmed 2018 meeting with President Trump, West rambled incoherently about his Maga hat being his Superman cape, causing some to question whether he was being appropriately cared for and supported. The same year, the musician outraged the Black community by stating: “When you hear about slavery for 400 years… that sounds like a choice.” He later apologised for that remark, too.

In the ongoing circus, it no longer feels surprising that West interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Music Video wards, going on to write the controversial lyrics of Famous: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous.” West claimed Swift knew about the lyrics before the song came out; she denied this.

West launched a short-lived presidential bid in 2020: that now doesn’t seem surprising either.

In dealings with women, West has faced sexual abuse and assault allegations from former female employees. He and his first wife, Kim Kardashian – with whom he has two daughters, North (12) and Chicago (8), and two sons, Saint (10) and Psalm (6) – divorced in 2022. The same year, he married the Australian architect and performance artist Bianca Censori.

Talking to Vanity Fair in February, Censori, 31, said she didn’t marry him for a platform: “I married him because I love him.” Censori is famed for wearing highly exposing outfits, which – with her perma-frozen countenance – reads as submissive and sex-doll-like.

At the 2025 Grammy awards, while West was fully dressed, she wore a skimpy transparent dress with no underwear. “He was covered head to toe in black and there was this woman virtually not wearing a fig leaf,” says Mark Borkowski, whose PR agency specialises in crisis communications and reputation management. “I thought it was incredibly exploitative.”

Five days before the Grammys, West posted: “I HAVE DOMINION OVER MY WIFE. THIS AINT NO WOKE AS FEMINIST SHIT”. He also posted: “I am a Nazi.”

Amid West’s turbo-fuelled braggadocio, his antisemitism has remained constant. His song Heil Hitler sampled an Adolf Hitler speech. Neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes and manosphere kingpin Andrew Tate were among those filmed making Nazi salutes to the song at a Miami beach club.

With due sensitivity to the complexities of mental illness, some of West’s activities don’t always seem to fit the template of sudden uncontrollable outbursts. Beaumont says: “It takes time to sit down, write a lyric, record it and release it – to make a T-shirt design, print it up and sell it.” West’s remorse, furthermore, can sometimes look conveniently timed around product releases.

Beaumont wonders at the speed of events leading to the Wireless booking: “We had an apology in January. Surely it’s too soon? There does need to be a certain amount of reflection, more indication in Kanye’s life and work that he’s on that kind of journey.”

As it is, there’s unease, not just at West’s past activities, or how his mental health issues may resurface onstage, but also at the lack of uproar, outside of Jewish groups, which is deemed to reflect a wider antisemitic climate.

Has West turned into a liberal blind spot – given chance after chance of reputational rehab that many, with some justification, suspect he doesn’t deserve? If West is stuck in an outrage-apology cycle, for now, it appears to be working. He has performed comeback shows in Mexico and China, and there was one in Los Angeles last week.

If the Wireless shows happen in July, Borkowski isn't sure if new-style modern audiences will register West in terms of moral issues. “They buy the tickets to be the person who was there. They see Kanye West as a huge spectacle. They’re expecting a freak show. And he continues to deliver.”

Kanye West

Born Atlanta, 8 June 1977

Work Hip-hop artist

Family Four children with first wife, Kim Kardashian. Married to Bianca Censori