Two sporting stars who signed deals with Kanye West’s marketing company announced on Tuesday they were severing ties with the troubled rapper – the latest to abandon him following his anti-semitic rant.
Aaron Donald, who plays football for the Los Angeles Rams, and NBA star Jaylen Brown, with the Boston Celtics, said they could no longer be part of West’s firm, Donda Sports.
They followed Adidas, Gap, Balenciaga, Vogue and Foot Locker in ending their deals with West.
West on October 9 tweeted that he would go ‘death con 3’ on ‘JEWISH PEOPLE,’ an apparent reference to Defcon, the U.S. military defense readiness system.
His Twitter and Instagram accounts were blocked in response, but the 45-year-old was unrepentant, refusing in multiple interviews to apologize.
On Monday, West’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian tweeted: ‘Hate speech is never OK or excusable. I stand together with the Jewish community and call on the terrible violence and hateful rhetoric towards them to come to an immediate end.’
The same day, West gave a lengthy podcast interview reiterating his condemnation of ‘Jewish people’ for much of society’s ills and his own personal trauma.
Yet on Tuesday, a former NFL player, Antonio Brown – who is on the staff of Donda Sports – defended West and said he would stick by him.
NFL player Aaron Donald (left) and NBA star Jaylen Brown (right) both on Tuesday said they could not work with Kanye West’s sports marketing company
West is pictured on March 16 with Jaylen Brown at the Chase Center in San Francisco
Antonio Brown, who was recently ordered by a court to pay $1.2 million in damages to a truck driver he assaulted in 2020, said: ‘The people and brands that have relentlessly profited from black ideas and black culture chose to distance themselves at a very specific time: a time that demonstrated their prioritization of certain groups over others.’
He added: ‘None of us in this world are free of judgment, yet we live in a time where scrutiny and pessimism have driven our dialogues on cultural issues toward diatribes.’
He said he believes West’s antisemitism was taken ‘out of proportion’ by the media.
Donald, 31, joined Donda Sports in May – the first and only NFL player to sign with the rapper’s sports marketing firm.
On Tuesday, he issued a statement co-signed with his wife Erica to explain why they decided to walk away – without mentioning West by name.
‘The recent comments and displays of hate and antisemitism are the exact opposite of how we choose to live our lives and raise our children,’ they said.
‘We find them to be irresponsible and go against everything we believe in as a family.
‘As parents and members of society, we felt a responsibility to send a clear message that hateful words and actions have consequences and that we must do better as human beings.
‘We do not feel our beliefs, voices and actions belong anywhere near a space that misrepresents and oppresses people of any background, ethnicity or race.’
Brown, 26, who is vocal about the importance of education and lifting up marginalized communities, then followed suit.
Donald joined in May, and the news was announced in June
Donald is seen on October 9 celebrating during a game against the Dallas Cowboys
Brown is pictured in action on October 21 against the Miami Heat in Florida
Like Donald, he signed with West’s firm in May – but unlike Donald, he insisted this week he was standing by the Chicago rapper.
‘The reason why I signed with Donda Sports, it represented education, it represented activism, disruption,’ he said on Monday.
‘It represented single-parent households, and a lot more people are involved in something like that.’
On Tuesday, Brown said he had given the matter more thought, and changed his mind.
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‘In the past 24 hours, I’ve been able to reflect and better understand how my previous statements lack clarity in expressing my stance against recent insensitive public remarks and actions,’ Brown wrote on Twitter.
‘For that, I apologize. And in this, I seek to be as clear as possible.
‘I have always, and will always, continue to stand strongly against any antisemitism, hate speech, misrepresentation, and oppressive rhetoric of any kind.
‘In light of that, after sharing in conversations, I now recognize that there are times when my voice and my position can’t coexist in spaces that don’t correspond with my stance or my values.
‘And, for that reason, I am terminating my association with Donda Sports.’
On Monday, West doubled down on his wild and deeply-offensive rhetoric in a two-hour-and-26 minute interview with podcast host Lex Fridman, a Russian-American computer scientists who is also Jewish.
West is pictured on October 21 in Los Angeles
West blamed Jewish people for his mental health problems, and claimed Jews ‘control the media’.
He told Fridman: ‘We are still in the Holocaust. A Jewish friend of mine said, ‘Go visit the Holocaust Museum,’ and my response was, let’s visit our Holocaust Museum: Planned Parenthood.
‘Fifty percent today of … black people’s deaths today is abortion.
‘It’s not racism; that’s too wide of a term. It’s genocide and population control that black people are in today in America, that is promoted by the music and the media that black people make, that Jewish record labels get paid off of.’
Fridman challenged West on his claim of Jewish control of media and industry.
‘I grew up in the Soviet Union,’ Fridman said.
‘I’m Jewish, parts of my family perished in the Holocaust of Nazi Germany, I have to push back. When you say ‘Jewish media,’ there’s an echo of a pain that people feel.’
West replied: ‘You’re saying it’s redundant, right. If Jewish people would accept that I’m a Jew, they’d hear it in a different way.’
Fridman said: ‘The right thing is not to say there’s Jewish control of the media.’
West yelled: ‘That’s incorrect though! That’s a f****** lie. There is. And did they did come and bully me and proved the point.’
West mocked Kardashian for her ancestry, saying: ‘Certain people just have high DNA. Ivanka Trump has high DNA.’
He later returned to his antisemitic themes, claiming that billionaire philanthropist and progressive George Soros ‘would use the black trauma economy to win an election.’
West claimed his own mental health disorder was the result of a Jewish conspiracy.
‘There was a Jewish trainer that brought me to the hospital, and put in [the] press that I went to the hospital. A Jewish doctor that diagnosed me —’
Fridman replied: ‘Why do you keep saying Jewish?’
West said: ‘Because they were. Diagnosed me with bipolar disorder and shot me with medication. Then put it in the press.’
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