Kanye West has seemingly stirred the pot once again by wearing a t-shirt with the face of a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi heavy metal artist.
On Friday, JPEGMAFIA shared a picture of himself standing next to Kanye, who was wearing a band T-shirt for the Norwegian black metal group BURZUM. In the middle of the shirt was a photo of the band's lead singer Kristian Varg Vikernes, who is a known Neo-Nazi supporter.
Vikernes' antisemitic views have been well-documented, and he has found himself in some major legal issues. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison for killing his Mayhem bandmate Euronymous in 1993, and while incarcerated, allegedly formed the Heathen Front, a neo-Nazi organization that followed a belief system called "Odalism" and promoted antisemitic and white supremacist views.
The Norwegian singer was released after serving 16 years but found himself in even more trouble over the years. In 2014, Vikernes was found guilty of a hate crime in France for initiating racial hatred against groups such as Muslims and Jewish people on his social blogs.
According to MetalInjection.net, Vikernes also criticized Black people and uploaded a since-deleted video on YouTube titled "We Are All Africans," in which he reportedly said, "Appreciate and protect your race. Mother nature made it like it is for a reason."
Kanye's ties to Vikernes aren't only with just the t-shirt he was seen wearing on Friday. The album cover for Ye and Ty Dolla Sign's highly-anticipated Vultures closely resembles cover art by BURZUM. The album also features controversial lyrics in the title song, where Kanye rapped, "How I'm antisemitic? I just fucked a Jewish bitch."
Kanye's controversial T-shirt comes shortly after he posted an apology for antisemitism to the Jewish community. Per TMZ, Kanye's December apology might have been generated using an AI chatbot—ChatGPT or Google Bard—as detected by Scribbr's AI detector.
In his note, Kanye West expressed remorse for hurtful comments he made about Jewish people. These comments included sharing conspiracy theories and praising Hitler during an interview with Alex Jones.
