Kanye West to be featured on new song called ‘Israel’
Title of the song in which the rapper now known as Ye tells of meeting the devil raises eyebrows in wake of West’s history of antisemitic statements
Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, will be featured on an upcoming track by rapper Albe Back called “Israel.”
On the yet-to-be-released track, Ye raps about meeting the devil, saying the lines: “Tell me right now is it real/ Y’all be talking about the devil I seen a close-up/ Every night I could’ve told everything they told us/ They was talking about the style I said n***a Moses/ Ain’t nobody pardon Hoover but we got the closest.”
Albe Back teased the song on his Instagram account this week without revealing a release date, but noting that it will be included on his upcoming album “Dying Near A Charger.”
Ye’s participation in the upcoming song is notable considering a series of antisemitic rants last year in which the 46-year-old rapper praised Hitler, denied the Holocaust and identified as a Nazi. He never apologized.
Since his antisemitic statements, Ye has kept a relatively low profile, releasing his last song over a year ago.
Ye’s rhetoric has been linked to dozens of real-world antisemitic incidents including physical attacks, and widespread Jew-hatred online, the Anti-Defamation League reported. The rapper lost a number of business deals with Adidas, Balenciaga and Gap in the wake of his comments.
Albe Back previews "Israel" featuring Ye pic.twitter.com/OX6O8O5vmQ
— Donda Times (@dondatimes) September 6, 2023
X, the company formerly known as Twitter, went in the opposite direction earlier this summer, drawing fire from Jewish groups by reinstating Ye’s account, around eight months after it was suspended.
Last year, Ye tweeted an image that appeared to show a swastika interlaced with a Star of David on Twitter. Owner Elon Musk suspended Ye from the platform, which he had bought weeks earlier.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, tweeted that it was “absolutely sickening that antisemite Kanye West was unsuspended from Twitter/X and given a gold verification check mark. He’s done absolutely nothing to make amends.”
Ye has more than 31 million followers on the platform and has not yet posted since his reinstatement.
