In light of the Queen's death, Kanye West vows to lay down his sword and stop beefing
“Life is precious," the rapper mused alongside two photos of Her Majesty. "Releasing all grudges today leaning into the light.”
The death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday immediately prompted an international cultural response (including a two-week period of public mourning in Britain) and naturally, the caliber of the in memoriams has been varied. There’s the lovable (Paris Hilton referring to the Queen as “the original girl boss”), the head-scratching (the Broadway production of Hamilton somewhat literally losing the plot), and the downright weird (Chris Colfer’s Queen Elizabeth II shrine.)
Joining the chorus today: Kanye West (now known as Ye), who apparently took the Queen’s passing as a sign to say the last rite for his beefing career. The rapper, who has well over a decade of picking fights to his name, shared in an Instagram post that in the wake of a British monarchy shift, he’s ready to begin “leaning into the light.”
“Life is precious,” the rapper mused in a text, shared in a slideshow alongside two photos of the Queen as a younger woman. “Releasing all grudges today.”
If Ye really is taking the Queen’s death as his cue for peacetime, he’s got more than a few troops to call home—in recent weeks, Ye had been regularly posting and deleting Instagram tirades. Subject matter varied from Ye’s frustration with multiple Adidas and Gap executives for their handling of his Yeezy brand to a fervent determination for his kids to attend Ye’s Donda Academy. The latter decision appeared to be a contentious one between Ye and his ex-wife Kim Kardashian—but hey, if your ex-husband insisted you send your kids to his special new alternative academy, you might have some questions too.
Now that Ye is leaning into the Queen’s afterglow, he’s freshly scrubbed his Instagram of any posts of an instigating nature. The first visible image on his profile is now a photo shared on Wednesday of Ye huddling with his kids North, 8, Saint, 6, Chicago 4, and Psalm, 2, and a basketball. “Some things are bigger than money,” the caption reads, seeming to address Ye’s recent troubles with Yeezy. “My kids have no idea what daddy has gone through this past few days alone to secure the brand that will one day be handed down to them God Willing.”
He continues on: “These future leaders will never back down be stolen from and forced to compromise who they are for the check.” We can’t imagine that that sentiment, at least, was inspired by losing Queen Elizabeth II.