Hollywood talent agency CAA has stopped representing Kanye West after the rap superstar made a series of controversial social media posts about Jewish people. Film studio MRC has also abandoned a completed documentary on West, saying it “can’t support” his “unacceptable” views.
Hollywood gossip site Variety confirmed on Monday that West, who also goes by the moniker ‘Ye’, was recently dropped by CAA. The agency, which was previously accused of covering up infamous producer Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuses, did not release a statement on ending its relationship with West.
CAA is the second talent agency in as many days to distance itself from West. United Talent Agency, which represented the rapper before he returned to CAA earlier this year, released a statement on Sunday accusing West of “spew[ing] the plague” of anti-Semitism.
Meanwhile, CEO Ari Emanuel of entertainment firm Endeavor penned an op-ed calling on the entire corporate world, including Apple and Spotify, to sever ties with West. “Those who continue to do business with West are giving his misguided hate an audience,” Emanuel wrote.
Additionally, a group of MRC studio executives stated on Monday that they will no longer release a completed documentary on West, saying that they “cannot support any content that amplifies his platform.”
“Kanye is a producer and sampler of music,” they wrote. “Last week he sampled and remixed a classic tune that has charted for over 3,000 years — the lie that Jews are evil and conspire to control the world for their own gain.”
West has a long history of controversial opinions, and drew flak from his fellow celebrities when he emerged from a social media hiatus in 2018 as a committed supporter of former President Donald Trump.
However, the latest furore began when he publicly accused fellow rapper Diddy of being controlled by Jewish people after Diddy criticized him for wearing a shirt with the slogan ‘White Lives Matter’.
Ye was then booted off Twitter and Instagram for threatening to go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” and threatened with legal action by the family of George Floyd for claiming that he died of a fentanyl overdose. While traces of fentanyl were found in Floyd's system, his cause of death was officially determined to be cardiopulmonary arrest after former police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for eight minutes.