The artist formerly known as Kanye West, who last week said “I’m a Nazi” and “I love Hitler” on his no-longer-active X account, was seen by Super Bowl LIX viewers in Los Angeles in an ad promoting his Yeezy brand.
Variety reports that the ad, which sees Ye saying that he was shooting the commercial on his phone after spending the budget on his “new teeth,” aired in the Los Angeles market, i.e. it was not shown nationally. As for the dental theme of the ad, some have posited that this could be a reference to previous nitrous abuse allegations.
While a variety of items had previously been available via the YZY site, including merch tied to his upcoming Bully album, just one item—a stupid fucking swastika shirt—was being sold as of this writing.
This isn’t the first time Ye has aired an ad in a select Super Bowl market, nor is it the first time his rhetoric has been widely criticized as dangerously antisemitic. In fact, last week’s aforementioned “I love Hitler” moment isn’t even the first time Ye has publicly expressed “love” for the Nazi Germany dictator who took his own life after his fascist regime killed six million Jews and millions of others in the Holocaust.
Elsewhere, Ye has been publicly supportive of Diddy on social media amid the Bad Boy Records founder's trafficking and racketeering case, at one point claiming on X that he himself had “hit women before.” Ye did not elaborate on this claim, though he did use a screenshot from footage of Diddy's 2016 assault of Cassie to hawk a hoodie.
The late Virgil Abloh was also mentioned during Ye’s days-long X spree, with the 47-year-old twice writing “Fuck Virgil.”
As for the status of Ye’s X account, it wasn’t immediately clear whether Ye himself had deactivated the account or if the nature of his recent posts (including porn) had spurred the site to take action. The account is not listed as “suspended,” suggesting Ye made the move on his own.
According to X, among its rules are the barring of any affiliation with, or promotion of, “the activities of violent and hateful entities.” Additionally, “hateful conduct” is highlighted as being against site rules. Ye's IG, meanwhile, is still live, albeit with all posts archived and/or deleted.
