Kanye West has become one of the most polarizing figures in the entertainment world, with some followers calling him toxic and others expressing their sympathy, or some combination of both. Now a growing contingent is demanding that the 44-year-old rapper be banned from Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which is scheduled to take place on two back-to-back weekends in April.
This will be Coachella’s first time returning since a two-year COVID-19-related hiatus. West has played Coachella five times, and in 2011 was the first rapper to close the festival, Yahoo reported.
Now a change.org petition to remove the “Donda” rapper from the lineup has earned more than 40,000 signatures.
“We have watched Kanye harass, manipulate, and hurt Kim [Kardashian], Pete [Davidson], and others for over a year now. No one seems to want to stand up to him, and the ones that do, he puts under fire as well,” the petition says. “Most recently, he has been threatening actual bodily harm on others. This is ridiculous that he is allowed to freely do this. Coachella (along with other brand names that are still working with him) should be ashamed of themselves and should not be giving him any more of a platform. Please sign & share!”
The petition comes after weeks of back and forth between West, his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, and Kardashian’s new boyfriend Pete Davidson. Fans were especially offended by West’s music video for the new song “Eazy,” which included a claymation depiction of West burying Davidson alive and torturing him.
Then there was the incident between West and “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah in which the rapper called Noah a racial slur in a now-deleted post on Instagram. The move got West temporarily banned from the social media platform and he was later removed from the 2022 Grammy Awards, where he was scheduled to perform.
In reply to the Grammy’s drama, Noah tweeted, “I said counsel Kanye not cancel Kanye.”
For now, Harry Styles is slated to headline Coachella both Fridays while Billie Eilish will be headlining Saturdays and Kanye West on Sunday. Eilish and West also performed at the most recent Coachella in 2019.
Earlier, West threatened to back out from this year’s Coachella after Eilish made remarks that were seen as a diss to rapper Travis Scott, who is friends with West. The rapper demanded an apology from Eilish for the comments.
Meanwhile Scott was dropped from the Coachella lineup after the disaster at his AstroWorld festival that resulted in the deaths of ten people, including a 9-year-old boy. Interestingly, there was also a change.org petition for Scott’s removal before the festival decided to go forward with that decision.
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Source: Dailywire
