Kanye’s back – labels might care about his misdeeds, but the public doesn’t seem to | Shaad D'Souza

The rapper seemed to have blown his career up two years ago with a string of offensive comments. But now he has another album at No 1

Over the course of about a month in late 2022, Kanye West seemingly blew up his career for ever. Weeks of increasingly erratic behaviour culminated in a slip into full-blown reactionary populism with a series of offensive stunts, including but not limited to: wearing a White Lives Matter T-shirt, reviving hoary antisemitic tropes about Jews controlling the media, and threatening on X (then Twitter) to go death con 3" on Jews.

Within weeks, West's record label and publisher - Universal Music Group and Sony Music Publishing, respectively - terminated their contracts with him; he was dropped by his agency, CAA; and Adidas, Balenciaga and Gap canned their continuing collaborations. The vast majority of his $2bn (1.6bn) net worth evaporated overnight. Kanye Is Never Coming Back From This read the headline of one Rolling Stone article at the time.

Shaad D'Souza is a freelance culture journalist

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