Kanye West: yikes! The once great rapper has been disgraced in recent years, partly through a decline in the quality of his work but mostly thanks to repeated antisemitic statements that lost him many endorsements. Nevertheless, he still has some allies, as recent collaborator Ty Dolla $ign has called Ye "one of the best people I've ever met."
Speaking with Billboard about VULTURES 1, his recent album with Ye (released under the name ¥$), Ty defended his choice of collaborator.
"Ye is the best artist of this generation, besides me, and I don't give a fuck about what people were talking about. I know my n—. He's one of the best people I've ever met," he said. It's a bold claim to make about someone who has made such blatantly heinous statements. Perhaps Ty simply hasn't met many people?
Ty added that he wasn't worried that the album would fail commercially: "Just with my analysis of how it goes with him, he goes all the way to the top. And something may happen and he'll say [something people find offensive] — and then people [get] right back, you know. Because this shit is undeniable."
On that point, at least, he might be right — the single "CARNIVAL" topped the Billboard Hot 100, while VULTURES 1 sat on top of the Billboard 200 albums chart for two weeks.
Of course, working with publicly disgraced stars is nothing new for Ty Dolla $ign: in 2023, he teamed up with Chris Brown for the single "Motion."