A row has erupted between two music genre icons. The controversy began after rock n' roll legend Ozzy Osbourne accused hip-hop savant Kanye West of being an "antisemite" Friday evening.
"[Kanye West]," Osbourne tweeted, "ASKED PERMISSION TO SAMPLE A SECTION OF A 1983 LIVE PERFORMANCE OF '"IRON MAN'" FROM THE US FESTIVAL WITHOUT VOCALS & WAS REFUSED PERMISSION BECAUSE HE IS AN ANTISEMITE AND HAS CAUSED UNTOLD HEARTACHE TO MANY."
According to reports, the sample is expected to appear on West's upcoming album "Vultures."
Osbourne adds that "HE WENT AHEAD AND USED THE SAMPLE ANYWAY AT HIS ALBUM LISTENING PARTY LAST NIGHT. I WANT NO ASSOCIATION WITH THIS MAN!"
One of the main points of contention surrounding accusations that West is antisemitic stems from his statements that he "loves Hitler."
But, according to Jewish mathematician Eric Weinstein, who shared in close conversations with the rapper, this is a misconstrual, albeit one that doesn't lend itself to be looked at in a favorable light.
As Weinstein explained back in Feb. 2023, while speaking on a recent conversation he had with the rapper on episode 1945 of the "Joe Rogan Experience," West, Weinstein says, "is the most kind, creative, mentally-ill, wonderful, generous person you could imagine."
"My cousin," Weinstein adds, "is a Mengele twin who forgave" Nazi medical experimenter Josef "Mengele, which is what Kanye was trying to do — he was trying to say, 'I'm Jesus. I can tell that Hitler deserved and love admiration.'"
But Kanye, Weinstein continues, "was in the wrong scene. He wasn't equal to the thing he was taking on. It wasn't his to forgive Hitler and to celebrate Hitler. He's not Jesus."
"But the fact of the matter was I wanted Kanye to persist, and I didn't want his comment about 'I love Hitler,' and TMZ to take him out because I thought he was a force for good."