Controversial rapper, Kanye West has publicly apologized for his history of “reckless” antisemitic comments, attributing his behavior to an undiagnosed brain injury and mental health issues.
Over the years,Kanye has made various antisemitic and racist statements. In one post, he declared he was a Nazi and praised Adolf Hitler.
In a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal titled “To Those I’ve Hurt,” he said in part: “I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people.”
In the advertisement published Monday, he said: “I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change.”
Kanye wrote that the right frontal lobe of his brain was injured in a car accident 25 years ago. “It wasn’t properly diagnosed until 2023,” he said. The “medical oversight caused serious damage to my mental health and led to my bipolar type-1 diagnosis.”
“I lost touch with reality,” he wrote, adding that he “became detached from my true self.”
“In that fractured state, I gravitated towards the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika, and even sold t-shirts bearing it,” Ye wrote, referring to the symbol appropriated by Nazi Germany and modern white supremacists.
Ye wrote that he “fell into a four-month long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid, and impulsive behavior” in early 2025. He then hit “rock bottom a few months ago” and, at the encouragement of his wife, Bianca Censori, sought out “help.”
He said he found a “new baseline and new center through an effective regime of medication, therapy, exercise, and clean living.”
“I’m not asking for sympathy, or a free pass, though I aspire to earn your forgiveness,” said Ye, who is set to release a new album Friday. “I write today to simply ask for your patience and understanding as I find my way home.”
In 2023, the Anti-Defamation League, a leading Jewish advocacy group, said it had documented at least 30 antisemitic incidents nationwide that “directly reference Ye.”
Ye has previously apologized for his antisemitic comments. In a December 2023 Instagram post written in Hebrew, Ye wrote in part: “It was not my intention to offend or demean, and I deeply regret any pain I may have caused.”
He then doubled down in the February tirade on X, saying in part: “I’m never apologizing for my Jewish comments.