Kanye West and Chris Brown slammed for antisemitism after 'Vultures' performance in Dubai

Kanye West gave a surprise performance over the weekend in which he rapped lyrics that doubled down on his claim that he's not antisemitic.

Then Chris Brown weighed in.

West joined Lil Durk and Ty Dolla Sign on Sunday at Lil Durk's nightclub Blu Dubai, in Dubai, and the trio performed their new song "Vultures," which was released earlier this month. Videos of the performance have been making the rounds on social media, with a particular focus on West continuing his more than yearlong trend of antisemitic rhetoric. In the clip, which Blu Dubai shared via an Instagram story, West can be heard rapping the lines, "How am I antisemitic? I just f— a Jewish b—."

Chris Brown also was spotted at Blu Dubai, dancing alongside West as "Vultures" played. After Brown was slammed online for laughing and smiling as West's "Vultures" line played, he shot back via his own Instagram stories, claiming Piru gang affiliation.

Read more: Kanye West unravels: Antisemitism, far-right politics, broken business deals

"Let me make this perfectly clear before y'all try to use me as a pawn ... Ima a Piru, I aint Muslim or Jewish so don't start no s— wont be no s—!!!" he wrote. "Im trying to be peaceful but please do not wake up the demon in me! ... Go on about your f— day."

In another post, Brown reportedly wrote that he makes "music for the entire world" and added, "So please do not get tricked into thinking I spread hate or am kool with it! This is for the million of young kids that look up to me and may be confused"

"Vultures" is West's first new release since July 2022, when he dropped "Hot S—" with Cardi B and Lil Durk. Chatter around West since then has been centered less on his music and his antics surrounding his split from Kim Kardashian — which got his April Grammys performance nixed — and increasingly on his frequent public statements taking aim at Jewish people. West up to that point had been no stranger to making incendiary remarks, but his behavior often was chalked up to his bipolar disorder.

Read more: A new Kanye West song harks back to his antisemitic tirades

In October 2022, West's career seemed to unravel completely after he attended his YZY runway show during Paris Fashion Week wearing a shirt emblazoned with “White Lives Matter” (a slogan popularized by fascist and neo-Nazi groups). After facing swift blowback, he posted on his social media accounts that he was going to “Go death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” which prompted Instagram and then Twitter to pull the plug on his accounts. Elon Musk later welcomed West back to the social platform now known as X after he took the helm.

West's string of antisemitic comments in October 2022 prompted an uptick in bigotry. A well-known hate group alarmed residents in Los Angeles during a demonstration of support for West on a 405 Freeway overpass. Demonstrators gave Nazi salutes as they stood behind a large overpass banner that read, “Kanye is right about the Jews,” according to images collected by antidiscrimination organizations and Jewish residents alarmed by the group’s message.

Fallout for the rapper included being dropped by his agency CAA and losing his partnership deal with Adidas. Less than three weeks after Instagram suspended his account, West returned to the platform and claimed he “lost 2 billion dollars in one day” due to his rhetoric.

Read more: Kanye West's hits keep coming: Here are the companies that have cut ties with him

Last December, the rapper made it clear that, fallout be damned, he would keep making alarming statements in support of antisemitism. He appeared on alt-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' talk show "InfoWars" and said he sees "good things" about Adolf Hitler, brazenly adding, “I like Hitler.”

West also argued that Nazis “did good things too."

"We’ve got to stop dissing the Nazis all the time,” he continued. “The Jewish media has made us feel like the Nazis and Hitler have never offered anything of value to the world.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.