FRIEND AND FOE

‘Friends’ Star Goes Scorched Earth on ‘Hate-Mongering Bigot’ Kanye

The backlash around the U.K.’s largest music event is heating up.

Friends star David Schwimmer torched Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, in a lengthy Instagram statement, thanking sponsors that have backed out of London’s largest music festival over its headline act.

The U.K.’s Wireless Festival announced last week that Ye would headline all three nights of the event this coming July. The announcement sparked heavy backlash from both brands and politicians over Ye’s recorded and repeated history of antisemitism.

Over the last week, major companies have pulled out of the festival in retaliation: Pepsi, PayPal, Rockstar, Diego (owner of brands such as Johnnie Walker and Captain Morgan), and Anheuser-Busch InBev (owner of the beer brand Budweiser).

YE OR NAY

Major Music Festival in Crisis Amidst Backlash to Headliner

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Schwimmer, 59, lauded the corporate sponsors while asking any remaining sponsors to follow suit.

“It’s great to see companies with moral clarity,” the actor wrote, specifically thanking Pepsi, PayPal, and Diageo.

“Unlike Wireless and Festival Republic, they decided not to platform an artist who became one of the most recognizable hate-mongering bigots in the world…” he continued. “For years, Ye used his considerable celebrity to promote hate and violence against Jews, spreading antisemitic lies and stereotypes to his 33 million followers—more than twice the number of Jewish people alive today.”

The Emmy-nominated actor, who is Jewish and routinely calls out antisemitism in Hollywood and beyond, noted Ye selling T-shirts emblazoned with swastikas, his banned song, “Heil Hitler,” released a year ago, and his praise for Nazis.

Schwimmer also slammed Ye’s apology for his antisemitic outbursts, which was published in a lengthy Wall Street Journal advertisement in January. The actor suggested that the advert is “perhaps part of a PR scheme to assuage folks right before his long-planned return to the stage.”

In his lengthy statement, Ye, 48, alleged that his behavior stemmed from a long manic episode caused by bipolar disorder.

“I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change,” the artist wrote. “It does not excuse what I did, though. I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people.”

In response, Schwimmer, who has publicly condemned Ye before, wrote, “Remember: Ye’s apologized before, only to retract that apology and double down on his virulent hatred for Jewish people.”

Schwimmer continued to say that Ye’s “words and actions the last few years have caused incalculable, irreparable damage.” The actor said that Ye could repair the damage he has caused in other ways, suggested that Ye could officially pull his song, “Heil Hitler,” (which was taken down by streaming platforms), or meet with “Jewish leaders or artists to have a public conversation about his rehabilitation and make amends.”

Ye offered to do the latter in response to mounting backlash.

“I’ve been following the conversation around Wireless and want to address it directly. My only goal is to come to London and present a show of change, bringing unity, peace and love through my music,” the rapper said in a statement.

“I would be grateful for the opportunity to meet with members of the Jewish community in the UK in person, to listen. I know words aren’t enough—I’ll have to show change through my actions. If you’re open, I’m here.”

Schwimmer urged other sponsors of Wireless to withdraw from the festival in protest, naming and tagging companies including Budweiser, whose parent company has already announced its removal from the event.

“I believe in forgiveness, but it takes much more than this,” he wrote. “Until Ye demonstrates a commitment to building back trust—not only with the Jewish community, but with ALL the fans he left heartbroken and disappointed by his hateful rhetoric the last several years—he should not be granted a platform to perform. To do so is to be tacitly complicit in what these companies know to be wrong, unethical and immoral.”

Wireless, an annual hip-hop festival which debuted in 2005, has been thrust into the spotlight since Ye was proclaimed its headliner. After backlash peaked on Monday, Melvin Benn, a managing director of the organization behind the festival, defended the decision to platform Ye and asked for the artist to be given a second chance. “I have witnessed many episodes of despicable behavior that I have had to forgive and move on from,” he said.

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Benn added that the festival is “not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature, only to perform the songs that are currently played on the radio stations in our country and the streaming platforms in our country and listened to and enjoyed by millions.”

The festival has been condemned by prominent U.K. figures, even drawing the ire of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who called Wireless’s headline act “deeply concerning.”

NO MERCY

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The Daily Beast has reached out to Wireless for comment.

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Meera NavlakhaEntertainment Reporter

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