Kanye West is speaking out over the backlash for his claymation music video for "Eazy," which features a scene in which a figure resembling Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson is kidnapped and buried alive.
After the release of the video, which drew harsh criticism from social media users who found it bizarre, threatening and downright disgusting, Ye took to Instagram to share his thoughts on artistic expression.
“Art is therapy just like this view,” Ye wrote alongside an image of a house on fire. “art is protected as freedom of speech. art inspires and simplifies the world. Art is not a proxy for any ill or harm. Any suggestion otherwise about my art is false and mal intended.”
On the song "Eazy," featuring the Game, Ye rhymes, "God saved me from that crash/Just so I can beat Pete Davidson's ass," referencing the near-fatal car accident he was involved in in 2002. As seen in the video, Ye buryes the comedian's head before plucking roses from his skull and delivering them to a truck similar to the one he parked by Kim Kardashian's house on Valentine's Day.
Davidson has been at the center of a series of social media disses from Ye, including one in which he called pete "Skete" while encouraging his fans to publicly berate Davidson. “If anyone loves me and my family if you see Skete in real life scream at the looser at the top of your lungs and say ‘Kimye’ forever,” the rapper wrote.