In a new Instagram post, Kanye West has offered something of a mea culpa for his most recent string of headline-grabbing behavior, which included: continued efforts to win Kim Kardashian back; screenshotting private texts with her; derisory comments about Kardashian’s new boyfriend, Pete Davidson; calling out Billie Eilish for supposedly criticizing Travis Scott; and posting Marvel memes depicting Team Kanye vs. Team Kim.
“I’ve learned that using all caps makes people feel like I’m screaming at them. I’m working on my communication. I can benefit from a team of creative professionals, organizers, mobilizers and community leaders. Thank everybody for supporting me,” he wrote. “I know sharing screenshots was jarring and came off as harassing Kim. I take accountability. I’m still learning in real time. I don’t have all the answers. To be [a] good leader is to be a good listener.”
A brief recap: On February 14, West posted a message seemingly sent to him by Kardashian to Instagram, in which she warned that his public crusade against her new boyfriend could end up leading to violence against Davidson. “[You] are creating a dangerous and scary environment and someone will hurt Pete and this will all be your fault,” she wrote.
Kanye has thrown shots at Davidson on two recent songs, including saying, “God saved me from that crash/Just so I can beat Pete Davidson’s ass” on January 15’s “Eazy,” and “This afternoon, a hundred goons pullin’ up to SNL/When I pull up, it’s dead on arrival,” on February 11’s “City of Gods.”
In late January, West expressed anger over Kardashian letting their eight-year-old daughter, North, use TikTok. On Valentine’s Day, he sent a truck full of roses to Kardashian’s house. (Kardashian filed for divorce in February 2021, and while that has not been legally finalized, she also filed to be “declared legally single” in December.)
In recent days, West has made it a point to go after Davidson on social media. He called him a “dickhead” and made fun of his support of Hillary Clinton. He gave him the derogatory nickname “Skete.” He resurfaced an old, unsubstantiated rumor that Davidson had sent intimate photos of himself with Ariana Grande to her ex-boyfriend Mac Miller to keep Miller from thinking they would get back together.
He also posted a screenshot of a purported text from Davidson, which was cutoff at the edges but seemed to say that the comedian would not want to interfere with how West and Kardashian raise their kids, but that he hopes to meet them one day. “No, you will never meet my children,” Kanye wrote in another post. (Davidson referred to Kardashian as his “girlfriend” in a February 7 People interview.)
Last week, West posted a photoshopped version of the Captain America; Civil War poster. The two sides depicted Kanye, Drake, his then-girlfriend Julia Fox, Travis Scott, and Future against Davidson, Kardashian, Kid Cudi, Billie Eilish, and age-old foe Taylor Swift.
This warrants a little explanation. Kanye and Drake finally ended their beef late last year, and performed together at a benefit concert for Larry Hoover. Kanye and Fox’s short-lived but oft-covered relationship was still going strong at the time. It came to an end on February 14, with Fox writing in a since-deleted Instagram post, “I came up y’all lol, and not only that but Kanye and I are on good terms! I have love for him but I wasn’t in love [with] the man. Jesus Christ. What do [you] guys think I am 12 years old?!”
As for the involvement of Travis Scott and Billie Eilish, that tension dates back to the latter’s February 7 concert in Atlanta, which she stopped to ensure that a fan who was having breathing trouble was safe and had access to an inhaler. Eilish told the crowd, “I wait for my fans to be okay until I keep going,” which Kanye interpreted as a slight aimed at his friend Travis Scott, whose AstroWorld Festival resulted in 10 deaths due to “compression asphyxia.”
West then said that he would not be performing at Coachella, where both he and Eilish are slated to headline, until she apologized to Scott and the families of those who died at the festival. (The relatives of one AstroWorld victim called Kanye’s ultimatum “ridiculous.”)
The Kid Cudi component ties back to Davidson. In another deleted post, West wrote, “Just so everyone knows, Cudi will not be on Donda [2] because he’s friends with you-know-who.” It’s a clear reference to Davidson, as the pair have been close for years. In a February 12 tweet, Cudi wrote, “We talked weeks ago about this. You’re whack for flipping the script and posting this lie just for a look on the internet. You ain’t no friend.”
(Future is included on the Kanye side of the superhero battle because he is executive producing Donda 2. Kanye has announced his firstlive performance of the album on February 22.)
Kanye quickly followed the post with two more, one of which depicted a sign that read “Stop telling fathers they should have fought harder to see their children & start asking mothers why he had to fight at all.”