The artist formerly known as Kanye West mentions Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, Diddy, Taylor Swift, Jesus Christ, and Elon Musk on a Vultures track played during Thursday night’s Chicago livestream event.
In the song in question, possibly titled "Carnival," Ye begins the third verse with a request for "a rocketship" from the Twitter-ruining Musk, followed seconds later by a Kelly-related ponderance of the urine variety. This quickly leads to Cosby and Diddy talk, like so:
Anybody pissed off, gotta make 'em drink the urine
Now I'm Ye Kelly, bitch, now I'm Bill Cosby, bitch
Now I'm Puff Daddy rich, that's Me Too-me rich
First she say she sucked my dick
Then she say she ain't sucked my dick
She gon' take it up the ass like a ventriloquist
Last February, Kelly was sentenced to 20 years after being convicted in Chicago on charges including producing child pornography and enticing a minor. In June of that year, nine more women came forward with a sexual assault lawsuit against Cosby. Ye has mentioned both disgraced stars in the past, perhaps most notably on the The Life of Pablo era track "Facts," which saw him rapping, "Do anybody feel bad for Bill Cosby?/Did he forget the names just like Steve Harvey?" Kelly, meanwhile, was featured on the Cruel Summer comp opener "To the World," released in 2012.
Diddy was accused of sexual assault last year in multiple lawsuits. The Bad Boy Records founder has denied the allegations against him, saying in a statement released in December, "Enough is enough." Prior to that, in October 2022, Ye offered up a "fuck you" in relation to Diddy during an appearance on Drink Champs. Around that same time, he also shared screenshot-captured texts with Diddy regarding criticism of his White Lives Matter design.
Deeper into Ye's "Carnival" verse, Swift and Mr. Christ are brought into the mix:
I mean, since Taylor Swift
Since I had the Rollie on the wrist
I'm the new Jesus, bitch
I turn water to Cris'
Both Swift and Cosby, of course, were featured in wax form in Ye's "Famous" video back in 2016. The relentlessly headlined song itself also includes a Swift mention, with Ye rapping, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that bitch famous."
Thursday's event at United Center was made available for those not there in person by Veeps, a livestream platform co-founded by Good Charlotte’s Joel and Benji Madden. In 2021, Live Nation acquired a majority stake in the company. Notably, a different version of "Carnival" (without these exact lyrics from Ye) was previously previewed at a Vultures event last year. As for the "Iron Man" inspiration here, that should also sound familiar, as Ye previously tapped into Black Sabbath on the MBDTF track "Hell of a Life."
It’s unclear which volume of Vultures this particular song with Rich the Kid and Playboi Carti will ultimately end up landing on. At the time of this writing, the initial entry in the planned three-volume collection had not been made available on streaming services. In the earlier days of the rollout, Ye shared a statement to Instagram, saying, in part, "I sincerely apologize to the Jewish community for any unintended outburst caused by my words or actions." The statement came roughly a year after Ye's Alex Jones interview, which saw him telling viewers, "I like Hitler."
