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12 of Kanye West’s most cringeworthy and controversial lyrics

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, performs in 2015.Ezra Shaw/Getty Images Kanye West, now known as Ye, unveiled his new album “Donda 2” via livestream on Tuesday. It includes a sample from Kim Kardashian’s “SNL” monologue and a lewd line about Morgan Freeman. Ye is no stranger to cringeworthy or controversial lyrics. Here are his 12 most memorable missteps. “Soon as I pull up and park the Benz / We get this bitch shaking like Parkinson’s.””On Sight” was released in 2013.Scott Dudelson/FilmMagicSong: “On Sight”Album: “Yeezus” (2013)Context: Ye was harshly criticized by American Parkinson Disease Association vice president Kathryn Whitford and Parkinson’s U.K. chief executive Steve Ford for making light of the degenerative disease, which often leads to debilitating stiffness and trembling.”Kanye West has shown an inexcusable level of stupidity and cruelty towards people living with an incurable condition,” Ford said in a statement, calling Ye’s lyric “thoughtless” and “callous.””Chasing love, all the bittersweet hours lost / Eating Asian pussy, all I need was sweet and sour sauce.””I’m In It” was released in 2013.Lloyd Bishop/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty ImagesSong: “I’m In It”Album: “Yeezus” (2013)Context: Although “Yeezus” was met with broad critical acclaim, the album’s sixth track was described as “flat oafishness” (at best) and criticized for “Orientalist-style racism” (at worst).The song also includes the lyric, “Put my fist in her like a civil rights sign.”As Matthew Ismael Ruiz wrote for Billboard: “Comparing the sexual practice of ‘fisting’ to the black power fist John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised in ’68 in Mexico City? That’s just wrong, man.””Now, if I fuck this model / And she just bleached her asshole / And I get bleach on my T-shirt / I’ma feel like an asshole.””Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1” was released in 2016.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty ImagesSong: “Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1″Album: “The Life of Pablo” (2016)Context: This isn’t an offensive or particularly controversial set of lyrics so much as it’s clunky and icky.In response to an interviewer calling it “borderline cringey,” cowriter and collaborator Chance the Rapper explained that Ye often approaches songwriting like a “comedian.””He writes stuff that’s painfully funny and painfully true,” Chance said.”Do anybody feel bad for Bill Cosby? / Did he forget the names just like Steve Harvey?””Facts” was released as a single in 2015.Kevin Mazur/Getty ImagesSong: “Facts”Album: “The Life of Pablo” (2016)Context: It’s unclear whether Ye meant to mock or sympathize with Bill Cosby, who has been accused of sexual assault by 60 women. (It’s probably the latter, considering he tweeted “BILL COSBY INNOCENT !!!!!!!!!!” a couple of months later.)Either way, comparing the actions of an accused rapist to Steve Harvey’s blunder at the Miss Universe competition didn’t sit well with people.”Anybody who’s on board with this track is probably as delusional as Ye is on this song,” music critic Anthony Fantano said at the time.”I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous.”Kanye West and Taylor Swift at the 2015 Grammys.Kevin Mazur/WireImageSong: “Famous”Album: “The Life of Pablo” (2016)Context: Ye’s infamous feud with Taylor Swift began in 2009, when he accosted the 19-year-old singer onstage at the MTV Video Music Awards.The two artists later reconciled and even said they were friends — until 2016, when Ye name-dropped Swift on his new album.Fans were furious with his misogynistic lyrics, despite Ye’s claim that he had gotten her permission to release the song. Swift’s publicist clarified that she was “never made aware of the actual lyric, ‘I made that bitch famous.'””You don’t get to control someone’s emotional response to being called ‘that bitch’ in front of the entire world,” Swift added in a now-deleted post.”Poopy-di scoop / Scoop-diddy-whoop / Whoop-di-scoop-di-poop.””Lift Yourself” was released in 2018.Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty ImagesSong: “Lift Yourself”Album: N/AContext: This standalone single arrived amidst a baffling series of events, including a flurry of pro-Trump tweets and Ye’s infamous claim that slavery was a “choice.”He teased “Lift Yourself” on Twitter as a response to Hot 97 host Ebro Darden, who’d recently questioned Ye’s politics. The song was widely dismissed as an attempt to troll his critics and a “musical poop joke.””I could have Naomi Campbell / And still might want me a Stormy Daniels / Sometimes, you gotta bag the boss up / I call that takin’ Corey Gambles.””All Mine” was released in 2018.Will Heath/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty ImagesSong: “All Mine”Album: “Ye” (2018)Context: In addition to naming multiple women he desires who were decidedly not his wife, Kim Kardashian, these lyrics acted as a defense of Trump’s alleged infidelity.Stormy Daniels said she had an affair with Trump in 2006 — not because she was attracted to him, but because she felt trapped — and that she was paid for her silence. Court documents unsealed in 2019 indicate that Trump was aware of a $130,000 hush-money payment that his personal lawyer made to the porn star, far exceeding the legal limit of $2,700.Even Ye’s corny punchline is worse in retrospect. He recently turned on Corey Gamble, who has been dating Ye’s mother-in-law Kris Jenner since 2015.”You got a sister-in-law you would smash? / I got four of them.””XTCY” was released in 2018.Kanye West/YouTubeSong: “XTCY”Album: N/AContext: Ye surprise-released “XTCY” on Kylie Jenner’s 21st birthday. The cover art for the standalone single is an abstract rendition of the Kardashian-Jenner women at Kylie’s birthday party, based on a photo she had posted on Instagram.In addition to broadcasting a sexual fantasy about his wife’s sisters (“Damn, those is your sisters? / You did something unholy to them pictures / Damn, you need to be locked up / Nah, we need a bigger hot tub”), the song also features Ye boasting about filming women he’s had sex with (“You got sick thoughts? I got more of ’em / You remember bad bitches that you smashed? I recorded ’em”).”Now your name is tainted, by the claims they paintin’ / The defendant is guilty, no one blames the plaintiff.”XXXTentacion in 2017.Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty ImagesSong: “One Minute” by XXXTentacionAlbum: “Skins” (2018)Context: As the only featured artist on XXXTentacion’s posthumous album, Ye used his guest verse to complain about fame and defend the late rapper’s legacy.XXXTentacion, whose real name was Jahseh Onfroy, was awaiting criminal trial when he was shot and killed in 2018. His list of charges included domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and aggravated battery of a pregnant woman. The alleged victim detailed her accusations in a January 2017 deposition. (Onfroy pleaded not guilty to the charges and maintained his innocence until his death.)In secret recordings later uncovered by Pitchfork, Onfroy confessed to abusing his pregnant girlfriend, threatened to kill her, and bragged about stabbing eight people.”Closed on Sunday, you my Chick-fil-A / You’re my number one, with the lemonade.””Closed on Sunday” was released in 2019.Kanye West/YouTubeSong: “Closed on Sunday”Album: “Jesus Is King” (2019)Context: Ye referenced Chick-fil-A’s famous policy on his most gospel-inspired album to date, which somehow won the Grammy Award for best contemporary Christian music album.”Closing our business on Sunday, the Lord’s Day, is our way of honoring God and showing our loyalty to Him,” Chick-fil-A’s founder, Truett Cathy, wrote in his book “Eat Mor Chikin: Inspire More People.”It’s unclear what inspired Ye to compare his human wife to the fast-food chain, but Kardashian did cosign the lyric by appearing in the music video with the couple’s four children.”God saved me from that crash / Just so I can beat Pete Davidson’s ass.””Eazy” was released in 2022.Victor Boyko/Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesSong: “Eazy” by The GameAlbum: N/AContext: Ye dedicated his first verse of 2022 to Pete Davidson, shortly after the comedian became romantically linked with Kardashian, who filed for divorce from Ye in early 2021.Back in 2018, Davidson also mocked Ye’s pro-Trump politics on “Saturday Night Live” and encouraged the rapper to take his medication — though he later applauded the rapper for “speaking out against mental health” and even treated him to dinner.”When you laid down and I gave you the semen / I swear I heard God, the voice of Morgan Freeman.”Morgan Freeman in 2019.Amy Sussman/Getty Images for WarnerMediaSong: UnconfirmedAlbum: “Donda 2” (2022)Context: According to multiple people who attended and viewed Ye’s livestream event on Tuesday, when he premiered “Donda 2,” the new album includes a lewd rhyme pairing Morgan Freeman’s name with a bodily fluid.Ye’s event also began with a nod to Kardashian after he spent several weeks publicly harassing her on Instagram. The album appears to sample an audio clip from her recent “SNL” monologue, in which she praised Ye as “a talented, legit genius who gave me four incredible kids.”Read the original article on Insider
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Written by: cahlgrim@businessinsider.com (Callie Ahlgrim)