By Ben Strober

Ye, the disgraced rapper formerly known as Kanye West, was spotted in Frederick County, Maryland, on Monday, November 28th.

“Seeing Kanye in Frederick just seemed unreal to me,” Gabby Alfano, a sophomore student from Frederick, said.

Ye’s presence became public knowledge when a Twitter image surfaced of him dining at Matsutake Sushi & Steak on Buckeystown Pike. Earlier that day, Ye walked off the set of the podcast Timcast IRL, which is recorded in western Maryland. He cut short his appearance on the show after host Tim Pool pushed back against the antisemitic trope that Jewish people control American media.

“The fact that he was in Frederick reveals how far from grace he’s fallen,” sophomore information science student Jack Haines said. “He’s resorted to appearing on these whacky podcasts to spit his offensive rhetoric.”

Ye appeared on the podcast alongside alt-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos and white supremacist Nick Fuentes, the latter of whom accompanied Ye to a dinner with former president Donald Trump earlier in November.

“It’s heartbreaking to me,” Haines said. “It’s so hard on people who enjoyed his music because it puts us in this position where we don’t even understand why he would act this way.”

In a viral clip from the podcast, Pool tells Ye that “they’ve been extremely unfair,” to which Ye responds, “Who is ‘they’ though? We can’t say who ‘they’ is, can we?” After Ye’s antisemitic statements, Pool offered slight pushback, while Fuentes doubled down on Ye’s remarks. 

“[Ye]’s had this attitude recently where he feels everyone is trying to take him down,” Haines said. “It’s such a shame because the only person he has to blame is himself.”

Ye’s hateful rhetoric continued the next day when he appeared on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ InfoWars show.

While on the show, Ye made multiple statements praising Hitler.

“I like Hitler,” Ye said during the episode. “I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis.”

Shortly after his appearance, Ye posted an image of a swastika combined with The Star of David — prompting new Twitter owner Elon Musk to suspend him despite the billionaire’s repeated denunciations of “cancel culture.”

“It’s unequivocally hate speech,” media law and ethics professor and expert on hate speech Christoph Mergerson said. “We know from history that when people say things like this about people in general, especially Jewish people, that it can advisedly incite violence.”

Ye’s recent hateful words toward the Jewish people have re-ignited debates about where to draw the line between free speech and hate speech. 

Additionally, many fear how others in their communities will respond to Ye’s ideas. 

“If you think of incitement as a broader principle, his words definitely contribute to an antisemitic climate that I believe is worsening in the United States,” Mergerson said. 

Mergerson described Ye’s attack on Jews as stochastic terrorism, the public demonization of a group that strongly applies potential violence.

Ye’s antisemitic behavior has also prompted individuals to re-evaluate whether or not they can truly separate the art from the artist.

Evan Rubman, a sophomore Jewish student from Gaithersburg, Maryland, has been a fan of Ye’s music for many years. However, Ye’s statements put Rubman into an “incredibly awkward position.”

“It’s hard for me because, at the moment, I hate him as a person, and what he’s been doing is so wrong,” Rubman said. “On the other hand, I’ve still listened to his music, but it does feel morally wrong.”

Rubman said that separating the art from the artist is possible, but only if you think about how Ye has changed.

“What Ye says now doesn’t reflect who he was as a person years ago,” Rubman said. “It’s sad to see how his mental health issues have turned him into the antisemitic figure he is now.”

Mergerson has never been a fan of Ye, but he said that the accusations of sexual assault leveled against Bill Cosby flooded him with similar emotions as current Ye fans.

Growing up in the 1980s, Mergerson found the Cosby Show inspirational because it was one of the first times in television history that depicted a Black family having a regular life in America.

Mergerson, a young Black child at the time, saw the show as positive — but once the Cosby scandal arose, Mergerson’s feelings changed.

“There was the part of me that wanted Cosby to be held accountable for what he did,” Mergerson said. “There’s a part of you that remembers what the show meant, and that part of you hurts, because it’s tarnished in such a horrific way.”

Mergerson added that he remembers how the Cosby Show shaped Black culture in America, similarly to how Ye has with his career. However, Mergerson said Ye’s antisemitism damages his art.

“The inescapable fact is that [Ye] is an antisemite,” Mergerson said. “He’s a reckless antisemite, whose words can promote violence.”

Since his sighting in Frederick, Ye has released a song titled “Someday We’ll All Be Free,” an apparent commentary on his recent hate-speech-filled interviews.

“I’ll probably still listen to new music from [Ye], but due to the fact that he’s deranged and what he’s done, it won’t exactly be the same,” Rubman said.

Featured image: Ye frowns next to a smiling fan at Matsutake Sushi & Steak in Frederick, Maryland. Fuentes can be seen in the background. Photo by Kyle Walsh.