Kanye West allegedly paid settlement to ex-employee who witnessed him glorifying Hitler and Nazis at work
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Kanye West reportedly paid off a former worker who claimed he had engaged in years of alleged antisemitic language and racist behavior at work. The 45-year-old CEO of Yeezy struck a settlement deal with a former worker who reportedly saw him lauding Adolf Hitler or Nazis multiple times in business meetings, reported NBC News.
In addition, six people who have worked with West over the past five years, have also reported seeing him engage in antisemitic words on various occasions. They claim to have heard West either “mention conspiracy theories about Jewish people or praise Hitler." In fact, three people stated they remembered the rapper going on an antisemitic rant during an interview at TMZ's offices in 2018. The report, however, states that West has refuted the claims made in the settlement.
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The former employees' statements as well as the settlement, indicated that West used such language for years in more instances than previously known to the public - long before his recent anti-Semitic statements and interviews became public, causing him to lose a slew of commercial opportunities.
Ryder Ripps, a conceptual artist who worked with West on and off from 2014 to 2018, was the only one to talk on the record, and claimed he previously pushed back on West's comments because he is Jewish himself — but never thought the comments were "dangerous." “He had told me a bunch of s–t about like, how, ‘Nazis are good at propaganda,’” Ripps said, remembering multiple instances in which West allegedly claimed, "'Jews have codes.'" The 'Stronger' rapper allegedly stated to him in 2018, "You're not offended that like I'm interested in Nazis or something."
Ripps does not appear to have taken West seriously in the past. However, in response to West's most recent accusations, the artist told the portal, "This is dangerous, and disgusting, and actually violent." “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, West has "crossed it with his current actions," according to Ripps, who has noticed an "uptick of people personally attacking him" because of his faith.
Ripps and other sources are not the first to assert that the West has a history of obsession with Hitler and the Nazis. According to CNN, multiple people claimed West wanted to call his 2018 album "Hitler" after the discredited world leader but changed his mind for an unexplained reason.
A business executive reportedly told the news agency that the father of four freely discussed reading "Mein Kampf," the Nazi Party leader's 1925 autobiography. “He would praise Hitler by saying how incredible it was that he was able to accumulate so much power and would talk about all the great things he and the Nazi Party achieved for the German people,” the former colleague alleged.