Ice Cube and Kanye West were photographed hugging over the weekend. Paparazzi snapped two photos of the rap giants embracing and smiling at Cube’s Los Angeles compound, appearing to confirm they’ve moved past 2022’s antisemitism controversy.
Last October, Kanye West was a guest on Drink Champs where he claimed his antisemitic posts were inspired by Ice Cube. But the N.W.A legend fired back, “I didn’t put the batteries in his back. Please leave my name out of all the antisemitic talk. I’m not antisemitic and never have been.”
During the inflammatory episode, West suggested George Floyd wasn’t killed by Minneapolis police and instead, died of a fentanyl overdose. West’s comments sparked public outrage while Floyd’s family threatened legal action. Drink Champs ultimately pulled the episode. Speaking to AllHipHop last month, co-host N.O.R.E. reflected on the incident and admitted West left some dark energy behind.
“God bless the brother Kanye,” N.O.R.E. said. “But Kanye kind of gave us a black cloud. And to be honest with you, we didn’t know what to do. Our heart was in the right place. We’re not about the controversy. That’s not what we’re about. And what we’re also not about is editing. What we should have did was just let it be, but we wanted to take a positive approach.
“We wanted to say, ‘You know what? We don’t want to benefit off of this. If anybody is offended by this, we don’t want to benefit so we took it down. We probably should have thought a little bit more about it. This is me—and I’m being vulnerable right now—but it was like a black cloud almost.”
It was only until months later when Wiz Khalifa was a special guest on the show that N.O.R.E. felt the cloud lift.
“Wiz sat down, I finished my hair cut, wiped all the hair off of me and then I gave Wiz a hug,” he added. “When Wiz gave me that hug, I felt like the black cloud just got lifted. I feel like Wiz lifted that black cloud because he came with so much positive energy. What I’m trying to say is I know he’s a god. I know he’s the god of positive energy. Because from that day on, I felt like the black cloud was lifted.”
Ice Cube has been accused of being antisemitic in the past. In June 2020, Cube posted an onslaught of memes, one of which is allegedly anti-Semitic propaganda branded by a fake Russian media property.
According to the Daily Beast, the meme was created by “Black Matters,” a website and Facebook page claiming to be a non-profit news resource for Black people. However, it was supposedly outed as a “Russian-run propaganda tool to manipulate Americans” years ago.
Ice Cube is melting down…
— Carol Roth (@caroljsroth) June 10, 2020
Sharing anti-Semitic imagery is helpful because?
Work together to lift everyone up; don't turn your hurt on someone else. https://t.co/IkB3lR4AtB
Honestly furious with the anti-Semitism from Ice Cube. If he keeps it up, the Vast Jewish Global Conspiracy's Committee for Weather and Climate Affairs is going to make it rain over his house for a year. https://t.co/vXnilESPpv
— Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 (@senatorshoshana) June 10, 2020
In another meme, Ice Cube appeared to share an antisemitic conspiracy theory involving the image of the Black Cube of Saturn within the Star of David. The Black Cube of Saturn reportedly refers to a cult of Satan worshippers. After the Daily Beast article ran, Ice Cube issued a warning to the publication, tweeting, “MESSAGE TO THE BEAST: if you attack any of my family or seeds, i will attack your family and seeds.”
Some Ice Cube fans thought he’d been hacked, while others weren’t surprised. As Cool Kids’ Chuck Inglish tweeted at the time: Folks mad at Ice Cube for saying the same s### he been saying for 30 years?”
Whatever the case, Ice Cube and Kanye West have clearly moved on. Check out the photos above.