If ever the public was going to put aside its tendency to debate the sincerity of a given celebrity’s public apology until the word performative loses all meaning, it was not going to begin with Ye. On January 26, the artist formerly known as Kanye West ran a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal in which he claimed that he is not an antisemite, addressed the disappointment he’s caused within the Black community, and opened up about how his well-publicized erratic behavior has been caused by struggles with bipolar disorder. He was, uh, not necessarily welcomed back with open arms.
While some took his statement in good faith and wished Ye well on his recovery journey, others were more skeptical and questioned the timing of this apology, given that his upcoming album, Bully, is slated to drop January 30. Today, in an email interview with Vanity Fair, Ye attempted to address these skeptics by reminding them his music is still wildly popular. “It’s my understanding that I was in the top 10 most listened-to artists overall in the US on Spotify in 2025, and last week and most days as well,” he responded to a question about whether his apology was a PR move. “My upcoming album, Bully, is currently one of the most anticipated pre-saves of any album on Spotify too. My 2007 album, Graduation, was also the most listened-to and streamed hip-hop album of 2025.”
He goes on to rehash some of the same talking points referenced in his WSJ ad: “This, for me, as evidenced by the letter, isn’t about reviving my commerciality. This is because these remorseful feelings were so heavy on my heart and weighing on my spirit. I owe a huge apology once again for everything that I said that hurt the Jewish and Black communities in particular. All of it went too far. I look at wreckage of my episode and realize that this isn’t who I am. As a public figure, so many people follow and listen to my every word. It’s important that they realize and understand what side of history that I want to stand on. And that is one of love and positivity.”
Rather than take Ye at his (written) word, Vanity Fair reached out to a couple of sources to see where they make of the artist’s statement, including neuropathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu and Dr. Avinoam Patt, director of the Center for the Study of Antisemitism at New York University. The former addressed Ye’s claim that the damage he sustained to his brain’s frontal lobe during a 2002 car accident caused his bipolar disorder, verifying that that is medically possible. The latter questioned whether he can accept Ye’s apology at face value. “I think what’s important to say is that the vast majority of people who have mental-health issues, or specifically have bipolar disorder, don’t espouse antisemitic or racist ideas,” he said. “And I’ll just say I’m skeptical because we now have a pattern that goes back years of antisemitic rants that reinforce harmful, dangerous stereotypes about Jews.”
Patt continued by calling for Ye to put his words into action “and perhaps even new music” to further his atonement. The researcher, in fact, is a professed fan of Ye, one who continues to listen to the music he made before he began publicly promoting anti-Jewish hate speech. Perhaps Ye has him to thank for all the streams Graduation racked up in 2025.
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