If you’ve been on the internet at all over the weekend, you’ve likely seen the drama around Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's daughter's birthday.
Chicago, who is Kim and Kanye’s third child, shared a lavish joint party celebrating her fourth birthday on Saturday, along with Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott’s child Stormi, who is also turning 4 in a couple of weeks.
In true Kar-Jenner style, the all-pink party was documented by the sisters all over Instagram, along with their respective tributes to Chicago — otherwise known as Chi — who turned 4 on the day of the event.
However, things took an awkward turn when Kanye — who is now legally named Ye — hopped online himself and claimed he hadn't been given the address of his daughter's birthday, despite repeatedly asking.
Sharing a video of himself supposedly driving around the neighborhood, Ye claimed that Kim and the rest of the family had refused to give him the location of the party as he “wasn’t allowed” to know where it was.
“I’m just wishing my daughter a public happy birthday,” Ye said in the first video. “I wasn’t allowed to know where her party was.”
“There’s nothing legal [in place],” he said. “This is the kind of games that’s being played. It’s the kind of thing that’s affected my health for the longest.”
“I’m just not playing,” he continued. “I’m taking control of my narrative this year. I’m being the father, the best father, the Ye version of a father, and I’m not finna let this happen.”
Ye went on to address his daughter directly, before claiming that he’d been in touch with not only Kim, but also the children’s nannies — and even Khloé Kardashian’s ex, Tristan Thompson.
“Chicago, happy birthday, I love you," Ye said. "And I’m just putting this online because I need y’all’s support."
“I done called Kim, texted nannies. I got on the phone with Tristan… He said he asked Khloé,” he added — which prompted a lot of speculation around the status of Khloé and Tristan’s relationship, in light of his recent paternity scandal.
Ye went on, “Won’t nobody give me the address to my daughter’s birthday party right now. That’s gonna imprint in her mind that I wasn’t there for her.”
“I was supposed to be in Miami recording my album. My whole schedule is all based around me being able to take my kids to school, me being there for them, making sure that I’m in their life. That’s the whole point of having money,” he said, referring to his four children: North, Saint, Chicago, and Psalm.
“They’ve been taking the father’s out the homes purposely,” he said, seemingly referring to the Kardashians. “So I’m speaking up. I’m using my voice to say this ain’t gon’ keep happening. This narrative is not finna happen.”
He continued: “It's a lot of people that's not in a position where they ain't got no voice when people be playing games like this, baby mamas be playing games, the grandmas will be playing games like this… they ain't finna play like that with me.”
Ye’s video quickly went viral online, sparking a mixed reaction from fans. While some expressed sympathy for the rapper wanting to be present at his daughter’s birthday party, others questioned why he’d supposedly been denied access to the event — especially given that he and Kim have remained on amicable terms throughout the majority of their divorce, which has been underway since February 2021.
Well, hours later — and presumably after several behind-the-scenes conversations — Ye did, in fact, make it to his daughter’s party.
Various sources claimed that the rapper was “in great spirits” once in Chicago’s company, with a bunch of cute photos of the father–daughter duo surfacing online too.
Ye and Chi at her birthday party today (1.15.22) 🤍
“He seemed okay once he started talking to the family and was in great spirits laughing and playing with Chicago,” one insider told the Sun. “It seems he just wanted to be involved in her day and didn’t want to cause trouble.”
“There was no scene between him and Kim but they did spend most of the afternoon at other ends of the garden,” the source claimed. “He chatted with Kris and some other family members but there was no deep discussion with Kim yet.”
Sharing a second video after the party, Ye revealed that it had been Kylie’s partner, Travis, who’d given him the address, before thanking everyone for helping him “calmly and legally” diffuse the situation.
“I’m so happy right now, just came from Chi’s party,” he said in the video.
“I just gotta shout out to Travis Scott for sending me the address and the time, and making sure that I was able to spend that birthday memory with my daughter [and] to be there with the rest of the family,” he continued.
“I just saw everybody… Kris and Kourt and Kylie — Kylie let me in,” he said, claiming that security “stopped” him upon arrival.
“Everyone just had a great time and I’m just really happy that I could be there for my children,” he added.
And while Kim has yet to comment on all the drama that unfolded, she was reportedly left “shocked” by the entire ordeal.
“Kim was shocked to learn that he released a video about not being invited to her party — that’s not true and as soon as he asked to come he was given the location,” a source told UsWeekly.
“There were always two parties planned for Chicago, which was Kanye’s idea. He was scheduled to celebrate with her at 4pm today,” the insider said.
The incident came just after Ye spoke about encountering other issues involving security, Kim, and his children in an interview addressing the drama around his newly purchased house.
As you might recall, Ye found himself at the center of attention last month after news broke that he’d bought a house across the street from Kim and their children.
Given that Ye had spent months pleading for Kim back with various public gestures, his choice to buy a new house within such close proximity of his ex raised many eyebrows among fans.
Addressing the controversy now, Ye maintained that his decision with the location was made purely for the benefit of his children.
“My solace comes from seeing my kids and getting a solid schedule. That’s why I even got the house,” he told Hollywood Unlocked. “[The media made it seem like] there was something wrong with me getting a house next to my kids.”
“When my mom took me from Atlanta to Chicago, my dad didn’t come to the coldest and most dangerous city in the world to be next to [me],” he went on. “He said, ‘I’m going to stay down in Atlanta ‘cause of my career.’”
“[There’s] nothing with my career, with this rap, with this media, with none of that, that’s gonna keep me from my children. And that’s what I want everybody to know,” he added. “Don’t play with me, don’t play with my children. Ain’t no security gonna get in between me and my children and you ain’t gonna gaslight me.”
The Donda artist went on to recall a recent exchange with security at Kim’s place, claiming that he was refused access to the property by the guards.
“Earlier this week, Monday, when I went to go pick my kids up from school, the security stopped me at the gate. So at that point, security was in between me and my children and that's what was not going to happen,” he said.
“My daughter wanted me to go inside. I was like, I am the richest Black man and North's father, right, and the security was able to stop me from going into the room with my daughter, and that had not been defined,” he added.
Ye went on to claim that the reason he was perhaps denied entry was because Pete Davidson — who Kim has been seeing since October — was inside the house.
“I am hearing that the new boyfriend is actually in the house that I can't even go to,” he said.
“This is for anybody that’s going through a separation, and people intentionally do things to be mean and hurt you ... to be playing games,” Ye continued, before going on to shade Kim and Pete’s relationship more harshly.
Referencing their joint Saturday Night Live appearance from October — which saw the pair share a steamy kiss in a sketch and marked the start of their romance — Ye expressed his discomfort at the whole thing.
“How you gonna bring me to SNL and kiss the dude you dating right in front of me, and everybody’s like, ‘Aw, that’s cool’?” he questioned.
However, regardless of his evident aversion to the new relationship, Ye’s claim about being denied access to his kids was quickly shut down by Kim's divorce lawyer, Laura Wasser.
In a statement quoted by Page Six, Wasser insisted that the rapper isn’t being kept away from his children “by security or anyone else.”
“Mr. West being kept from the children, by security or anyone else, is news to us,” Wasser said. “Both parties’ priority has always been the children maintaining strong bonds with each of their parents throughout this transition and beyond.”
What’s more, sources have since claimed that Pete has “never been” to Kim’s house, despite what Ye may have heard. According to TMZ, who heard from insiders close to the entourage, neither Pete nor Kim were home at the time Ye requested access.
Interestingly, Ye’s mention of Pete came just days after he publicly addressed his new relationship with Kim in some pretty harsh new lyrics.
In his recently released song “Eazy,” the rapper firstly nods toward his divorce from Kim — something that attracted widespread attention last month, after she said in legal documents that he’d been “non-responsive” to her requests to end their marriage.
Ye raps, “We havin' the best divorce ever / If we go to court, we'll go to court together / Matter of fact, pick up your sis, we'll go to Kourt's together” — with what appears to be a direct reference to Kim’s sister Kourtney, who often goes by the nickname Kourt.
Ye also throws some shade at the Kardashians’ parenting styles, hinting that it’s the “cameras” that “watch the kids,” and not them.
“I got love for the nannies, but real family is better / The cameras watch the kids, y'all stop takin' the credit,” he says.
He later refers to himself as a “noncustodial dad” — something that there is no public information to confirm — before appearing to call his children “bougie and unruly.”
“Noncustodial dad, I bought the house next door / What you think the point of really bein' rich for?” he raps.
“When you give 'em everything, they only want more / Bougie and unruly, y'all need to do some chores / Rich-ass kids, this ain't yo' mama house / Climb on your brother's shoulders, get that Top Ramen out,” he adds.
And Ye then goes on to drop his now-viral lyric name-dropping and slamming Pete — something which the SNL star actually made light of this weekend.
“God saved me from that crash / Just so I can beat Pete Davidson's ass,” he raps, followed by an unidentified person saying, “Who?”
Many fans think that the female voice questioning “who” Pete is could be Ye’s new romantic connection, Julia Fox — whom he seemingly goes on to mention in the next bar.
“And my new bitch bad / I know Illuminati mad,” Ye raps.
Ye and Julia’s whirlwind romance has been making headlines over the past few weeks, namely after the Uncut Gems actor gushed about their connection and revealed he’d surprised her with “an entire hotel suite full of clothes” on their second date.
Most recently, Julia said that she’s completely “surrendering” to Ye, in a new essay with Interview published on Saturday.
“I’m really surrendering,” she said. “For someone like me who’s such a control freak and always so used to taking care of myself, to just let go and be taken care of is foreign at this point in life.”
“[With] Ye... [it’s] the most instant natural organic attraction and connection,” she added. “I just feel really safe with him.”