Kanye West allegedly wanted to change his name to a Nazi swastika at one point, according to white nationalist Nick Fuentes – Ye’s former staff member.
The 25-year-old, who’s known for his right-wing live streams and for marching in 2017’s deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, was previously a member of Ye’s team when the latter was considering running for president in the 2024 election.
Fuentes went live on Rumble on Wednesday (August 21), where he denied the narrative that he “made” Ye a Nazi.
“[In December 2022], he told me he wanted to change his name to a swastika,” he told the audience. “Not making this up. So for anybody that says I made him a Nazi – that’s not true. He called me up out of the blue one afternoon and he’s like, ‘So what if I changed my name to a swastika?’ And he starts laughing and I start dying. I’m like, that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. He’s like, ‘Right, right.’ He goes, ‘Because then when they say my name, they’ll have to put a swastika on the [chyron] on TV.’”
He continued: “I’m like, ‘Wouldn’t they just put the letters though?’ He goes, ‘No, no, no! I’m not changing my name to the word.’ He corrected me. He said his name wouldn’t be spelled… It would be the symbol. And he was serious. I was laughing my ass off.
“I was like, ‘Well, why don’t we think about that?’ I’m like, ‘That’s kind of a big decision.’ I’m like, ‘Maybe we should hold off on that one.’ But that is no joke. And that was one of the many ideas that he shelved.”
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During a previous stream earlier this year, Fuentes also claimed that Kanye West would “tone up” his Blackness around other Black people – but that he’s really just an art-lover who was raised by a college professor. His genius, according to Fuentes, traces back to white-coded autism.
“He would have to kind of tone up the Blackness when he was with other Black people. I noticed this,” he said. “When he was with the Black people, he would kind of tone up how Black he was acting.”
He went on: “When he knew he was safe, when he knew it was a judgement-free zone and he could be himself, that’s when he realized his mom was a professor. And he didn’t come from Chicago, he came from Hyde Park. Big difference.
“He came from the campus of University of Chicago. He liked art, he liked poetry. You know, he’s like a white autist in many ways. He’s got the soul of a white autist. That’s what fuels his genius; not playing into this gang banger, ‘I fucked your bitch’ whatever.”
