Content warning - this article contains references to antisemitism, Nazism, and sexual violence
News broke on Tuesday that Wireless Festival was forced to cancel after the Home Office denied Kanye West (now legally known as Ye) entry into the country.
Opinions on the topic have been very much divided, with some arguing that the government should focus on other, more pressing issues, or that this is going to lead us down a very slippery slope — if the UK can ban a singer from performing, who else can they deny entry to?
However, I only have one opinion on the matter:
Thank fucking God.
Let me tell you one thing — I don’t care that he is the ‘King of rap’. I don’t care about his influence, or his chart topping hits. I don’t care about the supposed ‘mastery’ of his lyrics, and I definitely don’t care about the hordes of slobbering men so desperate to excuse him.
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past, well, forever, let me enlighten you as to some of things this alleged God is guilty of:
In 2016, he tweeted that Bill Cosby, who was, at the time, suspected of drugging and raping dozens of women, was innocent. The ruling was overturned, but Cosby then had to pay out over £40 million in damages earlier this year to a waitress he abused over five decades ago.
In 2018, he suggested at a TMZ event that the enslavement of African Americans was a “choice”.
From 2018 to 2020, he frequently, and openly, voiced his support for Donald Trump.
He ran for President, rapidly becoming popular within alt-right spaces. He’s publicly close friends with controversial figure Candace Owens.
He associated with Alex Jones, the Proud Boys, and Nick Fuentes — all extremists, often displaying dogwhistles for white supremacism.
He’s also faced controversies for his treatment of women. After splitting with his ex-wife Kim Kardashian in 2021, she faced consistent harassment and abuse, most of this being directly in the public domain.
She also shared concern for her children after it was brought to light that Ye had them around Andrew Tate — which is an entirely new can of worms that I’m not going to open.
And, of course, in 2022, he became his incessant rampage of hateful vitriol against the Jewish community — tweeting that he would go “death con 3 On Jewish people”.
In 2025, he tweeted several statements that got him banned from social media — including stating outright “I love Hitler”.
He released a song titled ‘Heil Hitler’, and got banned from Spotify’s e-commerce platform after selling Swastika t-shirts.
The point that I’m making is that this is not a single act of bipolar disorder-induced mania, but a repeated pattern of systemic abuse and hatred that everyone seems to conveniently ignore.
Melvin Benn, managing director of Wireless Festival, defended Ye by claiming people weren’t offering enough sympathy.
Of course BPD is an extremely misunderstood condition, and I think people who suffer from it should be extended kindness and grace — but there’s a line that has to be drawn.
Most people with BPD don’t fall into Nazism; they certainly don’t release singles and merchandise hailing Adolf Hitler as some kind of hero.
Ye’s apology, only published in January 2026, is not the sign of a man that has overcome his prejudices and worked hard to earn forgiveness — it is a self-serving, half-assed attempt at getting his fans to open their purses.
And they did! He allegedly made over $33 million following a two night, sold-out run at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
When we give these men our money, when we continually show up to support them and scream their lyrics back at them, we are doing nothing but perpetuating a culture that teaches impressionable young men that this is okay.
It’s okay if you beat, assault, or rape women, or love Hitler, because as long as your art is good, people will still show up for you.
Antisemitism has no place in London. Hateful rhetoric does not belong on our streets, and I’m so tired of people pretending that “free speech”, or a really good attempt at an apology, justifies it.
Disagree with me all you want, but the fact stands that this kind of thing has a genuine impact on people living their day to day lives.
About a year ago, I was on the Northern line, and when we stopped at Goodge Street, a man in a balaclava walked the entire length of the platform — Nazi saluting the entire way down.
It really stuck with me because it was around the same time that Ye began selling his Nazi memorabilia-turned-merchandise — it’s all funny internet jokes and silly woke leftie nonsense until it isn’t.
It’s ‘not that deep’ until you’re standing there alongside dozens of other stunned passengers as you watch this happen in real-time, less than 20 minutes from your front door.
We cannot normalise this culture of hatred that is so deeply entrenched in so many areas of our lives. This isn’t even specifically about Kanye West, it’s about every single person that we allow to spew their vitriol without a shred of consequence.
It’s about Connie Shaw doing a talk at our university, and the Restore Britain men that show up with their pop up tables and unfathomable opinions about abortions.
Hate speech is rapidly showing up literally everywhere, and we need to make more of an effort to actively fight it when we see it on our campuses.
I love London, and it saddens me that so much hatred has become so normalised. I hate that so many of us cannot speak out, that the culture we have developed forbids it.
Festival Republic should be ashamed that they allowed anything like this to happen in the first place — ashamed that the Home Office had to step in.
The fact that so many people are okay with it just proves that men such as Ye need to face real, genuine action for the things that they have done. Otherwise, they’ll just keep doing it.