Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, has doubled down on his Paris fashion show controversy, in which he sported a White Lives Matter t-shirt alongside conservative commentator Candace Owens, by denouncing the Black Lives Matter movement as a “scam.”
The Grammy-winning U.S. star enraged left-wing activists and media alike by wearing the t-shirt during a live-streamed presentation of his latest Yeezy fashion line.
Other models in the show also wore shirts sporting the same “White Lives Matter” messaging.
Ahead of the show, Ye told the audience: “Everyone here knows that I am the leader … you can’t manage me. This is an unmanageable situation.”
On his Instagram Stories on Tuesday, Ye defended the move, insisting that “everyone knows that Black Lives Matter was a scam.
“Now it’s over. You’re welcome,” he added.
The rapper has been accused of appropriating the Black Lives Matter slogan, previously used to protest racial injustice against Black people, but which also helped fuel protests that led to deadly riots in cities across the United States. The organization, which received millions in funding from private donors and large corporations, has also been beset with fraud cases.
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The Yeezy fashion show came a day after Ye had made his runway debut as a catwalk model for Balenciaga at the Paris Fashion Week.
It isn’t the first time Ye has sparked outrage among left-wing activists. In 2018, he said that 400 years of Black slavery “sounds like a choice.” He also famously supported Donald Trump and donned a Make America Great Again cap, much to the dismay of the majority of his counterparts in the music industry.
