Slovakia festival hosting Kanye West cancelled after thousands sign petition condemning Heil Hitler rapper | Kanye West

The Slovakia pageant on account of welcome Kanye West subsequent week has been referred to as off after the uproar over the US rapper’s Could launch of a track glorifying the Nazi chief Adolf Hitler.Earlier than the 20 July gig was cancelled, Bratislava’s Rubicon hip-hop pageant was set to be West’s solely confirmed stay efficiency in Europe this yr.Although he has received 24 Grammy awards over the course of his profession, the erratic rapper has turn into infamous for his more and more antisemitic and hate-filled rants.West, who has legally modified his identify to the shorthand Ye, launched the track Heil Hitler on 8 Could, the eightieth anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany within the second world conflict. The monitor ends with a pattern of a speech given by Adolf Hitler in 1935 within the authentic German, which ends with the Nazi chief calling for supporters to “arise for me like I’ve stood up for you”.The track was banned in Germany on the grounds of its extremist symbolism beneath hate speech legal guidelines and was faraway from most mainstream streaming platforms, however proliferated and located assist on Elon Musk’s X.Within the wake of the announcement of West’s look at Rubicon, 1000’s of individuals signed a petition towards the gig, calling it “an insult to historic reminiscence, a glorification of wartime violence and debasement of all victims of the Nazi regime”.Throughout the second world conflict, greater than 70,000 Slovak Jews had been put in focus camps, turned over to German authorities and murdered.West – a vocal supporter of the US president, Donald Trump – is “repeatedly and brazenly adhering to symbols and beliefs linked with the darkest interval of contemporary international historical past”, two teams behind the petition stated.In an announcement on Instagram late on Wednesday, Rubicon organisers stated the choice to cancel the occasion was “on account of media stress and the withdrawal of a number of artists and companions”.“This was not a straightforward determination,” they stated, with out drawing a direct line between the rapper’s deliberate look and the cancellations.Styling itself because the central European nation’s premier hip-hop haunt, the Rubicon pageant was to run from 18 to twenty July. The US rappers Offset and Sheck Wes had been to share high billing with West.This month it was revealed that Australia cancelled West’s visa over Heil Hitler, by which West raps about his custody battle together with his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian. West’s present spouse, Bianca Censori, is Australian.Agence France-Presse contributed to this report