Ye Backtracks After ‘Further Reflection’: ‘I’m Not a Nazi’

Less than two weeks after he declared himself a Nazi who loves Adolf Hitler, the artist formerly known as Kanye West has concluded that he's not, in fact, a Nazi.

In a post shared from his X account on Wednesday, Feb. 19, Ye appeared to backtrack from his widely condemned comments. "After further reflection I've come to the realization that I'm not a Nazi," he wrote.

Whether Ye is being sincere is up for debate, but he certainly tried his hardest to convince everyone he's a Nazi this month. After a barrage of tweets that also included flagrant use of homophobic slurs and disparaging comments referring to the late Virgil Abloh, Ye was widely condemned.

Despite the backlash to his comments, he was able to get a commercial aired in the Los Angeles area during the Super Bowl, which directed fans to a website that featured a t-shirt that depicted a Nazi swastika. The store was later removed and currently reads, "Yeezy stores coming soon."

Even if Ye insists that he's not a Nazi, he's still facing a discrimination lawsuit by a former Yeezy employee who is Jewish. The woman claimed that he specifically targeted Jewish employees and texted her "hail Hitler" after she stood up against his antisemitism, for which she was allegedly fired.

He's also made similar comments about walking back on his antisemitism before. In 2022, he threatened to go "death con 3 on Jewish people." He followed that up by sitting down for a Hitler-praising interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. But then in 2023, he said he "likes Jewish people again" after he loved Jonah Hill in 21 Jump Street.