Artist News

Kanye West vows to step away from politics, after being associated with ‘Blexit’ campaign

By | Published on Wednesday 31 October 2018

Kanye West

Kanye West has denied involvement with the ‘Blexit’ campaign in the US, which is encouraging black voters to leave the Democratic Party. In a tweet, he declared that he had “been used to spread messages I don’t believe in”.

The campaign was launched last week by activist Candace Owens, who claimed at a conference organised by conservative advocacy group Turning Point America – for which she acts as Communications Director – that West had been involved with the visual branding of the project.

According to the New York Post, she told that event: “Blexit is a renaissance and I am blessed to say that this logo, these colours, were created by my dear friend and fellow superhero Kanye West”.

Who describes themselves as a superhero? And thinks that compound words akin to ‘Brexit’ are a good thing? Well, Candace Owens, obviously.

And West does have an association with her. Earlier this year he tweeted that “I love the way Candace Owens thinks”, and then subsequently met with her. He also admits to acting as a middleman with the designer who did create the Blexit logo, but denies that he himself created it, as Owens claims.

“I introduced Candace to the person who made the logo and they didn’t want their name on it so she used mine”, he says. “I never wanted any association with Blexit. I have nothing to do with it”.

He continues: “My eyes are now wide open and [I] now realise I’ve been used to spread messages I don’t believe in. I am distancing myself from politics and completely focusing on being creative”.

I’m sure many will breath a sigh of relief at that latter commitment. After all, the rapper has done and said plenty of stuff in recent months to make people think that he would be involved in a campaign like Blexit in some way.

Elsewhere in Blexit news, The Fader has done some light Googling and discovered that many of the images of apparent supporters of the project are in fact stock images, public domain photographs, or photos used without a proper licence.



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