Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, will no longer be able to enter Australia after releasing a song that praises Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
Tony Burke, Australia’s home affairs minister, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Wednesday that the country had canceled his visa in early May, around the time “Heil Hitler” was released.
Ye has visited the country frequently since marrying Bianca Censori, who is from Melbourne.
“If someone argued that antisemitism was rational, I would not let them come here,” Burke said. “[Ye] has been coming to Australia for a long time … and he’s made a lot of offensive comments.”
The song proved to be the final strike for Ye. First shared in a social media post on X, “Heil Hitler” as been widely denounced for its racial epithets and antisemitism. It was also subsequently banned on most streaming platforms.
In the song, Ye sampled an infamous speech made by Hitler in 1935 at Krupp Factory, two years after he was appointed chancellor of the Nazi party.
Its music video, released May 8, shows a group of individuals dressed in animal skins reciting the song’s lyrics.
Ye’s behavior has long been controversial, but his antisemitism in recent years has put former colleagues in an awkward position.
John Legend, whose 2013 effort “Love in the Future” was executive produced by Ye, had a clear response in a recent interview.
“It never affects me personally, but just the whole story is sad. Like, seeing this guy praise Hitler, seeing this guy be this force of hate and just vitriol and nastiness,” Legend said during an appearance on New York’s Hot 97 radio show. “All the things he’s done to make the world more beautiful and interesting, for him to be this now, it’s sad. It’s just sad.”
He clarified that during his time on Ye’s G.O.O.D. Music label between 2004 and 2016, he never saw evidence that the rapper was “obsessed with Hitler.”
Legend added that despite Ye’s recent behavior, he has no regrets over their past collaborations: “I’m so glad we did what we did together.”
