Kanye West’s anti-Semitic remarks have put a sizable dent in his wallet.
According to documents reviewed by NBC News, the polarizing artist paid a settlement to a former employee who accused of him using bigoted speech in the workplace. The accuser spoke on the condition of anonymity, as they had signed a non-disclosure agreement; but the network reportedly reviewed the settlement documents as well as proof of the payout the ex-employee had received.
News of the settlement comes about a week after CNN published a piece about Kanye’s alleged fascination with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Party. The outlet reported Kanye had reached a settlement deal with an ex-executive who ultimately left his position because of the rapper’s “obsession” with the German dictator, whose years-long reign led to the deaths of millions of Jewish people in the 1930s and ’40s. NBC News has yet to confirm that settlement, as it “appears to be separate from the case of the former employee who shared settlement documents” with the network.
The documents also include accounts from six different people who allegedly witnessed Kanye praise Hitler or push anti-Jewish conspiracy theories in a professional setting. Half of those people described themselves as Kanye’s former employees or collaborators, while the others said they recalled hearing Kanye spewing anti-Semitic language during his infamous 2018 TMZ interview.
The documents support previous claims by ex-TMZ staffer Van Lathan Jr. and conceptual artist Ryder Ripps. The latter claimed he had worked with Kanye for several years, and heard him speak positively about Hitler and the Nazis in 2018; however, the Jewish artist admitted he didn’t think the comments were “that dangerous” at the time.
Kanye received backlash last month after he made several anti-Jewish remarks in televised interviews and online. His most controversial comment was a since-deleted tweet in which he vowed to go “death con 3” on Jewish people. Lathan claimed he wasn’t surprised by Kanye’s hateful rhetoric, as he heard him make similar statements during the aforementioned TMZ appearance.
“I mean, I was taken aback because that type of anti-Semitic talk is disgusting. It’s like, I’m taken aback any time anyone does that, right? But as far as [West], I knew that that was in him because when he came to TMZ, he said that stuff and they took it out of the interview. … He said something like, ‘I love Hitler, I love Nazis.’ Something to that effect when he was there,” Lathan said the Higher Learning podcast. “And they took it out of the interview for whatever reason. It wasn’t my decision.”
Kanye’s camp has yet to respond to NBC News’ report.
