Kanye West Defends ‘Eazy’ Video From Backlash Over Its Depiction Of Kidnapping Pete Davidson

Last week, Kanye West’s video for “Eazy,” the new single with The Game in which Kanye expresses his wish to “beat Pete Davidson’s ass” for dating his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, ruffled a few feathers for its black-and-white narrative that ends with Davidson buried up to his neck and sprouting flowers — literally, pushing up daisies. Some looked at it as Kanye’s genuine wish to harm Davidson, as the video contains claymation sequences in which Eazy-E and the Game kidnap the comedian at Kanye’s direction. Over the weekend, however, West defended the video and denied that he literally wants to harm Davidson.

“Art is therapy just like this view,” he captioned an Instagram post containing a still from the video depicting a burning house — a motif that has run throughout his rollouts for Donda and Donda 2. “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.” That would have seemed obvious from the title card that closes the video (and from the fact that it’d be kind of difficult to get Eazy-E to kidnap anyone for obvious reasons), but clearly, West felt that the backlash was worth responding to.

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Kanye may not have any plans to take his grudge against Pete Davidson any further but he’s certainly been vocal about his disapproval of the comic’s association with Kardashian, apparently seeing Davidson as one of the obstacles to their eventual reconciliation. For her part, though, she’s repeatedly said she has no desire to reunite with Kanye, even pushing to have their divorce finalized as soon as possible.