North West sings and raps in dad Ye's new video with Ty Dolla $ign
Ye has released a new music video featuring daughter North West ahead of his joint album with Ty Dolla $ign, "Vultures," slated for release Friday.
The video, for the album's track "Talking / Once Again," is a girl-dad double feature with "Vultures" collaborator Ty Dolla $ign and his daughter.
Ye's eldest daughter, whom he shares with ex Kim Kardashian, leads the track with a previously teased rap from a song originally titled "Slide."
In the video, North, 10, gets her hair braided by unseen hairstylists. She animatedly raps: "It's your bestie, Miss, Miss Westie / Just tryna bless me, just bless me."
Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, is seen intermittently as North talks in his ear and is later sitting on his shoulders. He isn't heard much on the track, outside of the repeated line: "Once again the clouds are gathering to release what they held in."
Ty Dolla $ign follows with a verse about feeling like his child is growing up too fast in between close-up shots of himself and daughter Jailynn Crystal, 19.
"How much to stop the car from speeding? They might try to slow down / How much to stop my daughter from growing? I just can't take it now."
Some celebs shared support for the video, including Tierra Whack, who wrote, "Cooker!!!!!!!" and rapper Duckwrth, who commented three crying emojis.
Ye's inclusion of daughter North in the video adds another layer of complexity to the embattled rapper's career amid his public rants about not being allowed to make parenting decisions, including whether his children should be online. The video also comes as he struggles to find a foothold following a series of antisemitic comments made most infamously in 2022.
Kanye's return to music, North West video comes amid controversy
"Vultures" is the first studio album from the rapper since his antisemitic remarks put his music and fashion career in limbo.
Ye, 46, tweeted in October 2022 that he would soon go "death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE" and doubled down in later television appearances, echoing popular antisemitic talking points about Jewish people controlling the entertainment industry and media. At Paris Fashion Week earlier that month, he wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase "White Lives Matter," which often is associated with white supremacist groups.
The rapper's antisemitic remarks cost him significant brand deals (and billionaire status), not to mention lost him plenty of public sympathy in the face of his public mental health struggles.
The release of Ye's new album and its implications for his fans and collaborators comes amid the Israel-Hamas war and rising antisemitism and Islamophobia, including more than 800 antisemitic acts since Oct. 7.
Ye has since released a Hebrew apology to the Jewish community, in which he asks forgiveness for "any unintended outburst caused by my words or actions," to mixed reactions.
Bill Maher, who jokingly called Ye a "very charming antisemite," told TMZ on Monday that the combination of Ye’s influence in pop culture and predominantly young fanbase helped spread his harmful rhetoric about the Jewish community. Maher chose not to release an episode of his "Club Random with Bill Maher" podcast featuring an interview with Ye for that reason.
"The problem, I think, is that he appeals mostly — of course he's a rockstar — to young people," Maher said. "They don’t know much, and they surely don't know much about the Middle East or Jews. … I feel like he was helpful for spreading the fertilizer, and I do mean fertilizer, for this idea that Israel and the Jews are the worst people in the world."
Contributing: Erin Jensen and Edward Segarra
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: North West, Kanye West's daughter, raps in new music video