Kanye West dropped by talent agency CAA after anti-Semitic comments; Kim Kardashian condemns tirade
LOS ANGELES -- The fallout from recent anti-Semitic remarks by Kanye West continued on Monday, including the rapper being dropped by his talent agency, a production company ending plans for a documentary about him, and a statement of condemnation by his estranged wife Kim Kardashian.
ABC News confirmed that the Hollywood talent agency CAA is no longer representing West, who is also known as Ye, in the wake of his recent tirade.
In a statement, the film studio MRC announced that it has abandoned a documentary project involving Ye.
MRC executives Modi Wiczyk, Asif Satchu and Scott Tenley said in a memo: "We cannot support any content that amplifies his platform."
In their lengthy memo, Wiczyk, Satchu and Tenley reach deep into the history of antisemitism.
"Kanye is a producer and sampler of music. Last week he sampled and remixed a classic tune that has charted for over 3000 years - the lie that Jews are evil and conspire to control the world for their own gain. This song was performed acapella in the time of the Pharaohs, Babylon and Rome, went acoustic with The Spanish Inquisition and Russia's Pale of Settlement, and Hitler took the song electric. Kanye has now helped mainstream it in the modern era," they wrote.
Kim Kardashian also added her voice to the growing backlash against Ye's remarks.
"Hate speech is never OK or excusable," Kardashian said in a statement published on her Instagram account, which has 332 million followers. "I stand together with the Jewish community and call on the terrible violence and hateful rhetoric towards them to come to an immediate end."
The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles told ABC7 that there is an ongoing fear in the community that such words will enable hate groups and lead to violence.
"When you have someone who's an influencer like Kanye West, it gives the energy to other people to then use those words and say, 'I feel that way too,'" said Rabbi Noah Farkas, a spokesman for the federation. "And that is exactly what we saw on Saturday.
On Oct. 8, Ye tweeted he was "going death con 3 (sic) On JEWISH PEOPLE," and also that, "You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda," without specifying what group he was addressing, according to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine records pulled by CNN.
His tweet has since been removed, and Twitter locked his account. In an interview conducted after the controversial tweet, West told Piers Morgan that he was sorry for the people that he hurt, though he also said that he didn't regret making the remark.
Photos taken Saturday show a small group of demonstrators on a 405 Freeway overpass with their arms raised in what appears to be the Nazi salute behind banners reading, "honk if you know" alongside "Kanye is right about the Jews."
"These people have free speech," Farkas said. "We live in a country where free speech is possible. However, if you decide to create an environment where you create a sense of hatred and bigotry, antisemitism, racism -- you then have to deal with the consequences of the people that you're connected to."
Meanwhile, Beverly Hills police are investigating the disbursement of about 25 anti-Semitic flyers in the north end of the city that blame gun control on Jewish people.
The CNN Wire contributed to this report.
