6 .5 million clicks within two days on X. Several hundred thousand clicks on YouTube. Various memes, videos and remixes with Millions of views on Instagram. Many posts feature the original audio of the song “Heil Hitler,” which rapper Ye formerly known as Kanye West released in May 2025 still online today.
The song is not the only one of his anti-Semitic actions in recent years. For years, Ye said he admired Hitler, compared himself to him, spoke of Jewish-controlled media, and denied the Holocaust. On Monday he apologized for his anti-Semitism.
It’s obvious how cruel Kanye West’s behavior and beliefs have been over the past few years. But it is also obvious – and this is not intended as an excuse – that the 48-year-old rapper is sick. According to his own statements, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder back in 2016. He now also blamed this as a reason for his behavior.
In the apology, which he published as a full-page advertisement in Wall Street Journal published on Monday, he speaks of a serious accident 25 years ago that led to bipolar disorder. “In this shattered state,” he writes, “I found myself drawn to the most destructive symbol I could find: the swastika.” Actually, he is not a Nazi or an anti-Semite. “I love Jews.”
How could it come to this?
This overcorrecting last sentence proves once again that Kanye West is unstable. That’s exactly why the question shouldn’t be how genuine his apology is, but rather how it got to the point where he was able to spread his anti-Semitism for years and make it socially acceptable in the rap scene. Not only West must be held accountable, but also the media and music industry that made this possible.
Some platforms such as Spotify, YouTube and Soundcloud tried to quickly take the anti-Semitic song offline. Nevertheless, some questions remain unanswered.
Why are the original video and audio clips of the “Heil Hitler” song still available on Meta even though in the meta guidelines stipulates that the platform will remove “content that glorifies, supports or depicts ideologies that promote hate, such as Nazism and white supremacy”?
Why was it possible for Ye to have one Super Bowl commercial in which he dressed the AI-generated likenesses of Jewish Hollywood stars in a shirt that had a Star of David, a middle finger and “Kanye” on it to promote his own shirts? White shirts for $20 that just have a black swastika on them?
How was he able to sell these shirts on his website yeezy.com through the Shopify e-commerce platform, even if just for a few days? Why could someone who publicly called themselves a Nazi even use this platform?
Because people make money from it is the answer. The fact that Kanye West could do all of this is only logical in a capitalist-driven music and media industry. The fact that it is, of all things, an advertisement through which he is now buying a platform for his apology is at least worth considering.