Kanye West has sparked outrage after bringing Marilyn Manson and DaBaby out on stage at his most recent listening event for his 10th studio album, despite the respective sexual assault and anti-gay allegations against them.
Kanye held his third listening party for his highly anticipated Donda album at Chicago’s Soldier Field on Thursday night, following two previous events of the same nature that took place in Atlanta over the past month.
As has come to be expected from Kanye’s performances, the third listening party provided plenty of moments for fans to discuss, including a moment where he set himself on fire, as well as a guest appearance from his former wife, Kim Kardashian West, wearing a wedding dress and veil.
❤️ #Donda
However, the event invited a lot of controversy after fans noticed that Kanye was joined by both Marilyn Manson and DaBaby onstage at the beginning of the show.
The artists joined Kanye in the center of the stadium for the first song of the event — a decision which some fans are suggesting might be Kanye’s attempt at commentary on "cancel culture."
The trio, all wearing black ensembles, gathered on the porch of what looked to be a churchlike structure built for the event, surrounded by chained fences and black SUVs, and encircled by a large troupe of masked individuals wearing black Donda riot gear and full face masks.
"Even if you are not ready for the day, it cannot always be night." #Donda
Earlier in the week fans caught a glimpse of the construction of the set and theorized that the building was a replica of the rapper’s childhood home in Chicago, where he grew up with his mother, Donda.
Looks like Kanye is building a replica of his childhood home in the middle of Chicago's Soldier Field. Donda West purchased the South Shore house in the 1980s and sold it in 2004. Last year, Kanye bought it back for $225,000.
While it's currently unclear why Kanye invited the artists to join him onstage, it's left fans outraged given the recent allegations against both men.
Manson is facing a string of lawsuits from multiple women alleging sexual assault and physical abuse, including his former partner Evan Rachel Wood.
In February, Wood named her abuser as Manson, having previously spoken out about the physical and sexual abuse she was subjected to by a former partner.
In an Instagram post, Wood alleged that Manson had “horrifically abused her” and referred to him as a “dangerous man.”
“The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson,” she wrote. “He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years. I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission.”
After he was subsequently dropped from his record label, Manson responded to Wood’s claims in an Instagram post, calling the allegations “horrible distortions of reality.”
Four other women subsequently came forward to accuse Manson of physical, mental, and sexual abuse. Two of them said their experiences had led to diagnoses of PTSD.
In 2018, Manson was also accused of having raped someone in October 2011. However, the Los Angeles district attorney's office did not press charges.
Meanwhile, DaBaby, who has collaborated with Kanye in the past, drew criticism for a series of anti-gay comments made in July.
Using derogatory language, the rapper spread extremely harmful misconceptions about HIV and AIDS during a festival performance, telling the crowd: “If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two, three weeks, put your cellphone light up.”
DaBaby this is weird to say?? Wth.
He went on to target gay men specifically, in comments which were denounced by many as "dangerous and harmful" to the LGBTQ+ community.
deplatorm dababy TODAY. such bigotry is dangerous and harmful.
The rapper was subsequently removed from the lineup of various other festivals and was publicly called out by several artists and collaborators, including Elton John, Madonna, Jonathan Van Ness, and Dua Lipa.
(1/5) We've been shocked to read about the HIV misinformation and homophobic statements made at a recent DaBaby show. This fuels stigma and discrimination and is the opposite of what our world needs to fight the AIDS epidemic. The facts are:
DaBaby eventually issued an apology, which led to even more backlash as he continued to spread misinformation about those living with HIV and AIDS, and said that the people who were offended by his remarks were “bringing negative attention and energy” upon themselves.
Inevitably, fans were both confused and disappointed by Kanye’s decision to endorse Manson and DaBaby in light of the allegations against them, with many posting on Twitter to express their outrage.
Wait so Kanye has Dababy and Marilyn Manson on the stage with him? A homophobe and an alleged abuser?!? I cannot. Should have stopped when he levitated out of the Mercedes Benz Stadium.
While others theorized that the appearances from the disgraced artists was Kanye’s attempt to tackle “cancel culture.”
I don’t think Kanye intended to redeem Marylin Manson or DaBaby. That’s not what I think the intent was. I think he was trying to display just how much stock we put into cancel culture vs celebrity.
What’s more, DaBaby’s presence at the Donda listening party comes just weeks after Kanye seemingly condemned the rapper’s actions by removing a song, on which they had collaborated, from all streaming platforms.
Shortly after DaBaby’s anti-gay remarks, it was reported by Variety that Kanye’s “Nah Nah Nah” remix, which features both DaBaby and 2Chainz, had disappeared from all streaming platforms.
To make matters even more complicated, fans were surprised to hear a guest verse from DaBaby on Kanye’s track “Jail,” which appeared to replace Jay-Z’s verse on the song that had been heard at the previous two listening events.
KANYE WEST & DABABY - JAIL #DONDA
Once again, fans turned to Twitter to express their disappointment that Kanye had altered the album to replace Jay’s verse with DaBaby.
I will always defend Kanye artistically but cutting Jay-Z and adding Dababy onto “Jail” has to be one of the most horrendous acts in human history #DONDA
But given that Kanye is known for making last-minute alterations to his records, it remains unclear whether DaBaby’s feature will actually make it onto the final album, which at the time of writing, remains unreleased.
