H H

"With all of the money and fame I still can't get my kids back, nggas see my Twitter but they don't know how I be feeling, so I became a n-zi, btch I'm the- ngga heil Htler, ngga heil Htler"

Given the fawning and gushing by many establishment creatives over the band Kneecap—who have been celebrated for promoting hateful incitement through 'music' that supports terrorist organisations such as Hamas and literally encourages people to kill domestic politicians—it seems a glaring double standard to now admonish a Black artist for doing far less. Sir Elton John was only too happy to declare his support for the Northern Irish band in March 2025 during an interview on BBC Radio 6 Music, where he said: "They’re just extraordinary... what they talk about is political, and there’s not many bands that do that. So, yeah, I love them. I love the energy. I love everything about them."

Paul Weller (that well-known bastion of moral certainty) also joined over 40 artists—including Primal Scream, Massive Attack, and Pulp—in signing an open letter condemning the censorship of Kneecap over their politics, asserting the importance of protecting free expression in the arts. Let’s see if they—especially Anthony Fantano, "the internet’s busiest music nerd"—apply the same standard to (Kan)Ye’s new single, H H, which has already triggered the desired effect: a tsunami of controversy, in what can only be described as “revenge troll rage punk.”

Just earlier today, Ye pointed out on X that if Randy Newman (the well-known Jewish American singer/songwriter satirist) is allowed to have an anthemic song called Rednecks that repeatedly uses the word “ngga,” then why shouldn’t he—a Black man—be allowed to do essentially the same, referencing Germany’s most infamous dictator.

It’s a good point—and one that opens up a can of worms around what constitutes comedy, art, satire, or actual incitement. For example, would Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator be canceled today for partially humanising the image of Hitler, thereby contributing to a rise in fascism? Chaplin was deeply concerned that the success of the film may have trivialised the atrocities committed by Hitler and the Nazis. In this respect, there is no plausible comparison to be made with the current "villain edition" of Ye, who I believe is more focused on disempowering the actual taboo or slur (though it may also stem from a genuine fetish or kink) surrounding Hitler and the Nazis. Given the widespread use of the term "Nazi" as a tool for canceling people, it makes a kind of twisted sense to amplify it in this way—though only someone addicted to toxic controversy, like Ye, is equipped to withstand the backlash at this level. Having lost access to his children, many of his bank accounts, and the support of his peers due to what many perceived as 'hate speech' back in October, 2022, he has now made his home in villainy—and from this Wolf's Lair, his new song has been born. From Jesus Walks in 2004 to Heil Hitler in 2025, no one can say he hasn't been on some kind of journey: the anti-hero's journey to paraphrase Joseph Campbell.

"Hate and love are very similar emotions.” - Kanye West

"I got so much anger in me. Got no way to take it out." - Ye

Leonard Cohen once wrote, "Love's the only engine for survival," but in the case of (Kan)Ye, it seems that hate works just as well. Where others might falter under the pressure of channeling such toxic energy, he thrives—reversing what would be kryptonite for most into his superpower. Now, the artist formerly known as Kanye West appears to be going for gold in the Troll Olympics aligning his personal and professional angst with the ultimate in prohibited salutes.

While many insist this is more his genuine credo born out of his current 'villain' era than actual trolling, I’d point them to the irrefutable irony: here is a Black man—who would have been persecuted in Nazi Germany—releasing a track that sounds like a depressed version of Ye's own All of the Lights, crossed with the Village People’s Go West and Mel Brooks’s Springtime for Hitler, that is testing the limits of censorship in America and the West.

If H H isn’t the ultimate humiliation for Aryan supremacist Adolf (who is surely spinning beneath his bunker at the thought of his biggest fan being a Black man), then I don’t know what is. On the other hand, given the current climate of rampant antisemitism across the globe, it’s understandable that those unmoved by Ye’s obvious pop provocation might find it deeply troubling and offensive. Such is the nature of art and artists—it can be disturbing. Yet in an age where we’re increasingly pacified by our tech overlords, smashing through the glass ceiling of this digital era with an Overton window–shifting anthem like this is undeniably audacious—especially when Ye’s previous single WW3, which also references Nazis, has topped Spotify's 'Viral 50' streaming chart in Israel, creating something of a theological and cultural paradox. Still, I fear the end result may be a wave of increased mass censorship.

And of course, if the new single H H were to provably result in future hate crimes against Jewish people, Ye will no doubt be blamed—much like German composer Richard Wagner, still the reigning anti-Semite-in-chief in the history of the arts, whose name and work remain tarnished by his ideologically racist legacy which many have claimed contributed to the collective murder of a people.

I’m afraid Ye will just have to settle for second place in that regard—whether he likes it or not. Mind you, with Dostoyevsky in 3rd place he's in elite company.