In a meeting concerning a clothing project in 2018, an ex-collaborator said West complimented Hitler, adding that “he wasn’t all awful” and that “he had some wonderful traits.”
According to documents obtained by NBC News, Kanye West paid a settlement to a former worker who claimed he had used antisemitic words at work.
Six persons who have worked with West or seen him in professional situations over the past five years also claimed to have overheard the American rapper praising Adolf Hitler or bringing up Jewish conspiracy theories.
Three of them are former coworkers or colleagues, and they claimed to have heard West use anti-Semitic words numerous times. The three additional individuals claimed to remember an incident from 2018 in which he launched into an antisemitic rant during an interview at TMZ’s offices.
Their reports, as well as the settlement, imply that West used similar language for years in more instances than were previously known to the public – far before his most recent antisemitic remarks were made public and cost him a wave of business transactions.
Ryder Ripps, a conceptual artist who intermittently collaborated with the rapper from 2014 to 2018, described numerous instances in which West praised Hitler and the Nazis or alluded to anti-Jewish plots in meetings in 2018.
Ripps recalled other instances in which West allegedly stated: “‘Jews have codes.'” “He had told me a bunch of s*** about, like, how ‘Nazis are amazing at propaganda,'” Ripps recalled.
Another former worker who spent three years working with West related how she overheard him praising Hitler and the Nazis in unofficial conversations.
”I believe that he was merely scanning the area to observe how others were responding. The former worker remarked. He would declare, “I even love Hitler,” before pausing to gauge reactions”.
In a meeting concerning a clothing project in 2018, the ex-employee said West complimented Hitler, saying that “he wasn’t all awful” and that “he had some wonderful traits.”
Jewish Ripps claimed he disagreed with West’s remarks at the time but felt they weren’t “that scary.”
However, in light of West’s most recent series of comments, Ripps said he now has a new perspective, adding, “This is dangerous, repulsive, and downright violent.
“It’s fairly evident that this is some kind of horrible, hate-filled, bizarre Nazi fascination with the pattern that’s happening and the doubling and tripling down of all this.”
Ripps stated that he thinks West’s words have given antisemitic individuals more confidence.
In the deal NBC News looked at, West compensated a former worker who claimed to have seen more than one instance of West praising Hitler or the Nazis in professional settings. West refuted the allegations stated in the agreement by the former employee.
Due to a nondisclosure agreement they had signed, the former worker talked on the condition of anonymity. NBC News reviewed the settlement along with other letters and documentation of the amount the former employee claimed they had received; however, specifics of the settlement are being withheld to preserve the person’s identity.
Requests for comment from West’s representatives went unanswered.
CNN revealed on Thursday that West had settled with a business executive who had accused him of inciting a hostile work environment through his “obsession” with Hitler. The payment, which seems to be distinct from the case of the former employee who disclosed settlement documents with NBC News, has not been confirmed by NBC News.
West has recently made a number of comments disparaging Jews and alluding to antisemitic conspiracies, some of which were posted on social media and others which were stated in interviews.
Attacks on “Jewish media” and Jews, in general, have been made often in the comments, using the antisemitic allegation that Jews control the media disproportionately.
West expressed regret “for the pain that I’ve caused and the uncertainty that I cause” in an interview with Piers Morgan.
Days later, though, in an interview with MIT research scientist Lex Fridman, he reiterated his earlier antisemitic statements. In a conversation with paparazzi on Friday, West repeated antisemitic conspiracy theories while pulling up a spreadsheet that he said marked Jewish media executives in red.
The recent comments made by West had a domino effect.
West, who inaugurated the Balenciaga runway show in September, and the fashion company broke off their collaboration on October 20.
On October 25, Adidas terminated ties with West and his clothing line Yeezy, joining Gap, Foot Locker, and other companies that had previously done business with him.
