Kanye West Collaborates on ‘Israel’ Track, Raps About Meeting the Devil After Antisemitic Remarks Last Year – Algemeiner

Kanye West performing at South by Southwest on March 21, 2009 in Austin, Texas. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, is featured on fellow rapper Al Be Back’s new album where they collaborate on a track titled “Israel,” a striking choice following the torrent of public antisemitic comments made by Ye last year.

On the fifth track of Al Be Back’s upcoming album, which is called Dying Near A Charger, Ye raps about encountering the devil and trying to free Larry Hoover, a former mobster who is currently serving six life sentences in prison in Colorado. Ye raps: “Tell me right now is it real/ Y’all be talking about the devil I seen a close-up/ Every night I could’ve told everything they told us/ They was talking about the style I said ‘n___’ Moses/ Ain’t nobody pardon Hoover but we got the closest.”

The track’s title, which has the same spelling as the Middle Eastern country, is pronounced in the song as “Is real” and “Is it real.” Al Be Back released a snippet of Israel this week on Instagram Live, where he rapped along to Ye’s verse while jumping up and down. A release date for the song has not been announced.

The collaboration is a follow-up to the duo’s partnership on Ye’s 2007 album Graduation, where Al Be Back appeared on the bonus track Good Night alongside Mos Def. Ye is also set to appear on another track on Al Be Back’s upcoming album, a song called Concussions that also features Fivo Foreign.

Ye went on an antisemitic tirade last year starting in October, when he posted on X/Twitter that he wanted to “go death con 3 ON JEWISH PEOPLE [sic],” a reference to the US military’s DEFCON system for rating how alert the armed forces should be at a given moment in the face of a threat. The rapper was criticized around the world for the comment, temporarily suspended from X — formerly called Twitter — and lost his Yeezy partnership with Adidas — as well as his brand partnerships with Balenciaga, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Vogue, GAP, Peloton and others. The rapper has since reactivated his X account.

Shortly after the Twitter post last year, the Flashing Lights singer shared antisemitic tropes on his social media accounts, including an image of a swastika intertwined with a Star of David. He additionally promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories and stereotypes during an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and said numerous times during an appearance on the talk show Infowars, hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, that he admired Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

While speaking with Jones, Ye denied facts about the Holocaust and said, “I see good things about Hitler, also, every human being has value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler. I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis … Nazis are kind of cool.”

Ye, who was a guest on the show alongside white supremacist Nick Fuentes, also said people should “stop dissing the Nazis” and compared himself to Jews hiding in the Holocaust, claiming, “There are Jewish people basically hiding me under their floorboards right now. It’s like a reverse version of the Holocaust.”