Apple Music Removes Kanye West Essentials Playlist

Kanye West {photo: David Shankbone | Wikimedia Commons]
Kanye West {photo: David Shankbone | Wikimedia Commons]

The Kanye West Essentials Playlist on Apple Music has been removed. Mail Online reported it had been axed amid the 45-year-old rapper’s ongoing controversy over his anti-Semitic outbursts.

It comes as some of the world’s biggest brands cut ties with Kanye, who has rebranded himself Ye.

Daniel Ek, CEO at Spotify, told Reuters Kanye’s comments about Jews were “awful”, but said that because his music does not violate the music platform’s anti-hate policies it would be down to Ye’s label, Universal Music Group’s Def Jam, to pull his catalog.

He added: “It’s really just his music, and his music doesn’t violate our policy.

“It’s up to his label if they want to take action or not.”

A spokesperson for UMG said: “Def Jam’s relationship with Ye as a recording artist, Def Jam’s partnership with the GOOD Music label venture and Ye’s merchandise agreement with Bravado all ended in 2021.”

Kanye’s deals with Balenciaga and Gap have fallen through, and the CAA talent agency has dropped him.

Yet dad-of-four Ye has insisted he isn’t losing any money in the wake of his anti-Semitic slurs.

The rapper told TMZ: “I ain’t losing no money. The day I was taken off the Balenciaga site, that was one of the most freeing days.”

Kanye West added people are cutting ties with him to “score points” and accused them of “trying to mute” him amid his other controversies, including parading a ‘White Lives Matter’ T-shirt at Paris Fashion Week.

He added about refusing to be canceled: “We here, baby, we ain’t going nowhere.”

Doubling down on his controversial remarks, he added: “I want to talk about the Jewish comment, it’s actually proven the exact point that I made.



“It’s going to take all of us to come together. We gotta get the truth before we can get the love if not we are just loving the lies.

“They never expected someone to have the platform. It’s not that anyone is afraid, they’re afraid of us not being afraid anymore. They can’t use all the tactics.

“I’m talking about my life has been threatened for having a political opinion. To wear the wrong color hat or the audacity of me as a black man to have a ‘White Lives Matter’ T-shirt. I’ve seen white people wearing ‘Black Lives Matter’ T-shirts. it’s pretty one-sided if you think about it.”