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Kanye West accused of antisemitic abuse in BBC documentary

Jack Gray & Tom Richardson
BBC Newsbeat
Reuters Kanye West appears to be addressing an audience. He has one arm raised up, his index finger pointing skywards, and looks determined as he speaks. There's a dark blue light emanating from the background, and a faint blue glow can be seen on the underside of his arm where his skin meets the light.Reuters
Kanye West's had a rollercoaster year and his fans' opinions of him have shifted up and down

They say "never meet your heroes", but what happens when you make a documentary about them?

As Mobeen Azhar found out, it's... complicated.

The journalist has been a huge fan of Kanye West - now known as Ye - since the rapper's debut album The College Dropout which he bought on the day it came out in 2004.

Like many fans, he was drawn by Kanye's "audacious" outsider persona and his frequent, headline-grabbing rants.

He re an innovative artist who wasn't afraid to "say things that many other people wouldn't say".

But you don't have to be a Kanye superfan to know that a lot's changed since then.

In less than a year, the rapper's antisemitic remarks were largely behind the loss of his billionaire status and host of lucrative brand deals.

Warning: This article contains contains descriptions of racism and other offensive and discriminatory language

'I don't think we should ignore him'

It got fans, including Mobeen, wondering what was going on and searching for answers.

And it was while he was looking for them for his BBC Two documentary The Trouble with KanYe that he heard new accusations of Kanye subjecting someone to antisemitic abuse.

Former friend and business partner, Alex Klein, says the rapper told him "you're exactly like the other Jews" when they parted ways after he'd helped him work on the release of the Donda 2 album.

"I said 'do you really think Jews are working together to hold you back":[]}