Rapper and businessman Kanye West believes that Elon Musk’s genes are the product of a larger attempt at genetic engineering, according to a social media post.
“Take a Chinese genius and mate them with a South African super model. And you have an Elon,” West (also known as ‘Ye’) said in all caps in a post on Instagram on Sunday.
The people behind Musk’s genome “probably made 10 to 30 Elon’s and he is the first genetic hybrid that stuck,” he added.
Musk’s mother Maye is a model of Canadian descent, while his father Errol is a white South African. The entrepreneur himself laughed off West’s suggestion and said he took it as a compliment. West stated it was intended as one.
The two had a falling out last week, after West posted a symbol on Twitter combining the Star of David with a swastika. Musk branded it a violation of the platform’s rules against incitement to violence, and West’s account was suspended.
The picture bore a strong resemblance to a symbol used by the Raelian Movement, a quasi-religious organization that rejects the existence of the divine and claims that humanity was created by a benevolent extraterrestrial civilization. Human cloning is perceived by adherents as a path towards immortality for the worthy.
In both of his posts, West expressed disdain for former US President Barack Obama, against whom he holds a long-running grudge. Last week, during an interview that the rapper gave to conspiratorial talk show host Alex Jones, he declared that Obama was “not the first black president, he was another Jewish president.”
In October, West suffered a major downfall in the public eye after posting a tweet about going “death con 3 on Jewish people.” Many people accused him of anti-Semitism and subjected him to ostracism. He was consequently banned from Twitter, but Musk purchased the platform the same month and reinstated West alongside several other users in November.
West has previously spoken publicly about battling mental health issues and being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.