I forgive Kayne!

I've been asked to speak for the Tribe in a non official capacity. I forgive Kayne West...sorry I mean Ye. What kind of name is Ye? On the other hand he's always looked Asian to me.

No matter. If he claims to have lost his mind 25 years ago, I believe him. I also give him a ton of credit for cranking out all those hit hip hop recordings through the fog of mental illness. Then again, you really need to be psychotic to listen to that garbage.

The point is, Jews do not judge. We're all about forgiving most everybody...well almost.

To Those I've Hurt

By Ye (Ad placed in WSJ, Jan 26, 2025)

Formerly known as Kanye West

Twenty-five years ago, I was in a car accident that broke my jaw and caused injury to the right frontal lobe of my brain. At the time, the focus was on the visible damage – the fracture, the swelling and the immediate physical trauma. The deeper injury, the one inside my skull, went unnoticed.

Comprehensive scans were not done, neurological exams were limited, and the possibility of a frontal-lobe injury was never raised. It wasn't properly diagnosed until 2023. That medical oversight caused serious damage to my mental health and led to my bipolar type-1 diagnosis.

Bipolar disorder comes with its own defense system. Denial. When you're manic, you don't think you're sick. You think everyone else is overreacting. You feel like you're seeing the world more clearly than ever, when in reality you're losing your grip entirely.

Once people label you as "crazy", you feel as if you cannot contribute anything meaningful to the world. It's easy for people to joke and laugh it off when in fact this is a very serious debilitating disease you can die from. According to the World Health Organization and Cambridge University, people with bipolar disorder have a life expectancy that is shortened by ten to fifteen years on average, and a 2x-3x higher all-cause mortality rate than the general population. This is on par with severe heart disease, type-1 diabetes, HIV, and cancer – all lethal and fatal if left untreated.

The scariest thing about this disorder is how persuasive it is when it tells you: You don't need help. It makes you blind, but convinced you have insight. You feel powerful, certain, and unstoppable.

I lost touch with reality. Things got worse the longer I ignored the problem. I said and did things I deeply regret. Some of the people I hurt the most were Jewish. I caused tremendous pain, fear, humiliation, and the exhaustion of trying to love someone who was, at times, unrecognizable. Looking back, I became detached from my true self.

In that fractured state, I gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika, and even sold t-shirts bearing it. Other hurtful comments – aspects of antisemitic bipolar type-1 are the disconnected methods – many of which I still cannot recall – that lead to poor judgment and reckless behavior that oftentimes feels like an out-of-body experience. I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change. It does not excuse what I did, though. I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people.

To the black community -which held me down through all of the highs and lows and the darkest of times: The black community is, unquestionably the foundation of who I am. I am so sorry to have let you down. I love us.

In early 2025, I fell into a four-month long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life. As the situation became increasingly unsustainable, there were times I didn't want to be here anymore.

Having bipolar disorder is not a state of constant mental illness. When you go into the manic episode, you are ill at that point. When you are not in an episode, you are completely 'normal'. And that's when the wreckage from the illness hits the hardest. Hitting rock bottom a few months ago, my wife encouraged me to get help.

I have found comfort in Reddit forums of all places. Different people speak of being in manic or depressive episodes of a similar nature. I read their stories and realized that I was not alone. It's not just me who ruins their entire life once a year despite taking meds every day and being told by the so-called best doctors in the world that I am not bipolar, but merely experiencing "symptoms of autism."

My words as a leader in my community have real global impact and influence. In my mania, I lost complete sight of that.

As I find my new baseline and new center through an effective regime of medication, therapy, exercise and clean living, I have newfound, much-needed clarity. I am pouring my energy into positive, meaningful art: music, clothing, design, and other new ideas to help the world.

I'm not asking for sympathy, or a free pass, though I aspire to earn your forgiveness. I write today simply to ask for your patience and understanding as I find my way home.

With love,

The Makings of a Kanye West Apology: An All-Staff Meeting and a 7-Figure Record Deal

The head of music company Gamma met with Jewish and Black employees before signing the rapper.

By Elias Leight, WSJ

Jan. 28, 2026 6:22 pm ET

The music company Gamma convened an all-hands meeting on Monday to discuss its latest signing: Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, who has alienated both fans and corporate partners in recent years with antisemitic remarks and statements calling slavery “a choice.”

Co-founder Larry Jackson said that Gamma agreed to work with the rapper because it believed he was committed to creating music with positive messaging, according to people present. And in a letter addressed “to those I hurt” that ran as an advertisement in The Wall Street Journal on Monday, Ye said he was “not a Nazi” and told the Black community he was “so sorry.”

The rapper will put out his next album “Bully” with Gamma on March 20, and the deal is in the mid-to-low seven figures, according to two people familiar with the matter.

This is not the first time that Ye has apologized before a new album. In late 2023, as he prepared to release “Vultures 1,” he wrote on Instagram in Hebrew that “I deeply regret any pain I may have caused.” Roughly a year later, he took to X to declare “my new sound called antisemitic.”

When asked what he hoped to accomplish with his latest apology, Ye referenced Darth Vader’s transformation at the end of the “Star Wars” movie “Return of the Jedi.” “He was a villain,” Ye said via a spokeswoman, “and came back a hero for good once again before the end.”

Gamma declined to provide additional details about its financial arrangement with Ye.

Jackson, who once managed the rapper and also previously worked at Apple Music, launched Gamma in 2023. It provides artists with a variety of services like distribution, marketing, radio promotion and branding opportunities. Investors include Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries, Apple and Alpha Wave.

Jackson sat with both Jewish and Black employees at Gamma before signing Ye, according to people familiar with the matter. During the all-hands meeting on Monday, he emphasized that the rapper felt remorse for his past remarks, the people said, though some staff still harbor reservations about Ye’s commitment to change.

In his apology ad, the rapper wrote that his behavior was caused by brain trauma from a car accident 25 years ago which later contributed to his bipolar diagnosis.

“I’m not asking for sympathy, or a free pass,” Ye said, “though I aspire to earn your forgiveness.”

A spokesman for the Anti-Defamation League called the rapper’s apology “long overdue.” It “doesn’t automatically undo his long history of antisemitism and all of the feelings of hurt and betrayal it caused,” the spokesman continued. “The truest apology would be for him to not engage in antisemitic behavior in the future.”

Ye’s previous comments destroyed his lucrative relationships with Adidas and Gap in 2022. At the time, Adidas said in a statement that the rapper’s remarks were “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous,” and Gap described them as “inexcusable.”

Ye noted in his letter that he now adheres to “an effective regime of medication, therapy, exercise, and clean living.” Gregory Hirschhorn, CEO of the company Too Lost, which distributed “Vultures 1” and its sequel, said that he’s recently observed a “noticeable shift” in Ye.

“While I don’t speak for the Jewish community as a whole, I do believe his efforts to make amends have been sincere and meaningful,” Hirschhorn added. “He’s taken real steps, including asking us to remove some of his more controversial recent works from streaming platforms, which we worked with him to do.”

The tracks that were taken down included “WW3,” in which Ye rapped about reading “Mein Kampf” before bed, and “Hallelujah,” an alternate version of “Heil Hitler,” which streaming services banned. (Bootleg versions can still be found online.)

Those songs drove some fans away, but Ye still has a large following. Spotify currently lists him as the 25th most popular artist on the platform, with close to 67 million monthly listeners.

In the Reddit forum devoted to the rapper, where more than 350,000 weekly visitors track and argue over his every move, his apology ad was a hot topic. Some fans were enthusiastic—“that was actually a pretty sincere and well written letter”— while others were dismissive: “How many times has he apologized, and then just did something even worse?”

The director Nico Ballesteros spent years by Ye’s side and released a 2025 documentary about him called “In Whose Name?” “Some [fans] are so young that I think they don’t fully understand or know the depths of some of the more recent things” that the rapper has said, Ballesteros said in an interview last year. Others “know about [his actions], but they just focus on their love for the music.”

Often that means Ye’s older hits: Data from Luminate shows that his releases with the most streams in the U.S. in 2025 were all more than a decade old, from the period when he routinely owned the charts with inventive, head-turning albums.

After reading the rapper’s letter on Monday, some of his old followers took a “wait and see” approach.

“His actions going forward are what counts,” one wrote on Reddit. Another added, “God I hope he follows through!”