Kanye West’s New Album Drops Jan. 30
On Friday (Jan. 30), Ye will drop his latest album. Titled “Bully,” it was originally released as the short film “BullyV1.”
In an exclusive interview, Vanity Fair magazine asked Ye whether his apology letter “is a PR move so you can release music and operate your businesses in the ways you used to, without the stigma of people thinking you’re antisemitic.”
In response, the rapper insisted that saying sorry “isn’t about reviving my commerciality.” Rather, Ye said, “These remorseful feelings were so heavy on my heart and weighing on my spirit.” He wanted to make sure people know “what side of history that I want to stand on,” he added, “and that is one of love and positivity.”
Dr. Bennet Omalu, the neuropathologist credited with pinpointing CTE in football players, told Vanity Fair that traumatic brain injury “most definitely” can lead to progressive behavioral changes. People with cognitive impairment “need our empathy and sympathy and not our judgment and dismissal,” said Omalu.
Other people expressed skepticism about Ye and his motives. Most people who live with bipolar disorder don’t spout antisemitic rhetoric, noted mental health experts.
Avinoam Patt, director of the Center for the Study of Antisemitism at New York University, said he is “skeptical” of Ye’s apology “because we now have a pattern that goes back years of his antisemitic rants that reinforce harmful, dangerous stereotypes about Jews.”
Ye also posted an apology to the Jewish community back in December 2023.
The latest apology “is long overdue,” according to an Anti-Defamation League (ADL) spokesperson. But the organization said Ye’s remorse “doesn’t automatically undo his long history” of racism and the damage it has caused. “The truest apology would be for [Ye] to not engage in antisemitic behavior in the future,” the ADL added. “We wish him well on the road to recovery.”
