Kanye West apologises, links antisemitism to 2002 brain injury
The musician purchased a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal to apologise for his offensive actions
Kanye West, who legally changed his name to Ye in 2021, has apologised for his previous antisemitism comments, citing a 2002 head injury as the cause behind his behaviour.
The musician purchased a full-page spread in The Wall Street Journal on Monday (January 26) to publish a letter entitled "To Those I’ve Hurt", apologising for comments he previously made.
West claims that the brain injury led to a “four-month-long” manic episode in early 2025. Comments he made around the time on X included "I love Hitler" and "I'm a Nazi"; he also sold T-shirts branded with swastikas via his Yeezy platform.
In the letter, he explained that he was involved in a car accident 25 years ago that broke his jaw and injured the right frontal lobe of his brain, with the “deeper” brain injury going “unnoticed” for years.
He said that he wasn’t diagnosed with a brain injury until 2023, which “caused serious damage” to his mental health and led to a bipolar disorder diagnosis.
“The scariest thing about this disorder is how persuasive it is when it tells you: You don’t need help. It makes you blind, but convinced you have insight. You feel powerful, certain, and unstoppable,” he wrote.
While Ye insists that the apology letter does not look for “sympathy” or a “free pass”, he apologised for his actions, claiming: “I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people”.
Last May, Ye released a controversial, pro-Nazi track titled ‘Heil Hitler’, which is now banned in Germany and resulted in the rapper’s Australian visa being revoked after its release. Just last week, a Miami nightclub came under fire when a DJ played the track for its right-wing attendees.
Around the same time, he also shared a post on X claiming to “have dominion” over his wife, Bianca Censori, who later encouraged the rapper to get help for his bipolar disorder.
Despite claiming that the manic episode took place in the early months of 2025, other controversial comments made by Ye were condemned years prior, and led to Adidas ending their partnership with his Yeezy brand in 2022.
In 2023, Ye made an apology to the Jewish community for past remarks, which was written in Hebrew in a since-deleted post on Instagram, and claimed that he “deeply regretted” any pain that he caused.
Read Ye's latest apology below.
Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Associate Digital Editor, follow her on X
