After being widely criticized for harassing his estranged wife Kim Kardashian and her new beau Pete Davidson for several weeks—and releasing a short non-apology that was most likely drafted by a fatigued publicist—Kanye West is back on his bullshit, exhibiting his most alarming behavior yet.
On Wednesday, West took to Instagram to drop the video for “Eazy,” his joint single with The Game, which reads primarily as a warning to Davidson, as opposed to a thoughtful piece of art associated with his elusive new album Donda 2. While the middling track didn’t receive much fanfare upon its release in January, folks will remember the cover art featuring a skinned monkey and the infamous lyric uttered by West, “God saved me from that crash just so I can beat Pete Davidson’s ass.”
The Chicago rapper takes this disturbing message and imagery a step further in the new black-and-white video, which features The Game rapping on top of a casket and stop-animation of West kidnapping an unmistakable clay rendering of Davidson and burying him in the ground. West even raps his verses while holding the SNL comedian’s dismembered head. At the end of the almost four-minute clip, West, in clay form, cuts a bunch of flowers that have grown around Davidson’s bloated head as it sticks out from a grave, puts them in the back of a vehicle, and drives off. This, it seems, is a depiction of the heavily mocked truck of roses West sent Kardashian on Valentine’s Day, which featured the phrase “MY MESSAGE IS KRYSTAL CLEAR” emblazoned on the side of the car.
ADVERTISEMENT
The video ends with a message that reads, “EVERYBODY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER INCLUDING SKETE [which is scratched out] YOU KNOW WHO.” The final slide reads, “JK HE’S FINE.”
Despite whatever joke West thinks he’s pulling off regarding threats to Davidson’s life, he’s blatantly ignoring the pleas from his ex-wife to leave her and her new beau alone, which he previously revealed on Instagram via screenshots of text messages from her.
The time of the “Eazy” drop also feels calculated, as news broke earlier on Wednesday that Kardashian has been legally declared single by a Los Angeles judge, following a request she filed in December. Last week, the reality star asked the court to reject a plea by West to halt the divorce proceedings, citing emotional distress caused by her ex’s posts on social media aimed at her.
At this point, in West’s era of disturbing shenanigans, it wouldn’t be surprising if the musician had been holding onto the video for “Eazy” and waited to release it in response to Kardashian’s emancipation from him. Just yesterday, there was speculation that West had something up his sleeve when he met with another estranged male partner to a Kardashian, Tristan Thompson, for dinner in Miami. He’s also been running around with an uncanny lookalike of his ex. And on Wednesday, Netflix dropped the third act of his documentary jeen-yuhs, if that plays any role in this latest stunt.
Regardless, it’s clear that West isn’t concerned with accusations that his behavior is abusive and genuinely terrifying for a woman of any level of wealth or power to experience. Considering the way he’s cozied up to abusers over the past year–including The Game, who was ruled liable for sexual assault in 2016, and Marilyn Manson–this latest incident will certainly spark more discourse about what kind of behavior our culture deems acceptable if you’re a talented, famous man.
While West’s music has always heavily featured misogyny, he seems to think terrorizing his family is an impressive, provocative form of art. Ever since his support of Donald Trump in 2018 and a new wave of harmful behaviors, fans have been been lamenting that the old West is gone. But after this latest incident, do we even want him back?
