Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, made a name — and a fortune — for himself making and saying whatever pops into his head. But for nearly a decade the things he says have increasingly become rooted in bigotry, ignorance and hatred.
His recent and repeated antisemitic statements emboldened a group of people to throw Nazi salutes and unfurl a banner above a Los Angeles highway that read "Kanye is right about the Jews." His comments also resulted in the termination of his hugely lucrative partnership with Adidas and he was dropped by CAA, one of the world's major agencies.
Despite this he remains one of the most influential and deeply embedded cultural figures of the 21st century, a reality that is hard to shake for many people.
Today on Front Burner, Elamin Abdelmahmoud, a longtime chronicler of Kanye, senior culture writer at Buzzfeed and host of the CBC podcast Pop Chat joins us to discuss the rap star's long history of saying things he shouldn't, absorbing the consequences and coming back.
