Should Kanye West headline Wireless Festival?

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0:48London's most popular R &B festival, Wireless, has announced Kanye West, or Ye as he is now known, as the headline act for all three nights of the festival this summer. With a history of anti-Semitic outbursts and open support for Nazi ideology, should he be platformed on the main stage? Hi, and welcome back to The Standard Podcast. I'm Tamara Komornik. For all the latest news, head to standard.co.uk. Coming up, should Kanye West perform at London's Wireless Festival?

1:33wireless is expecting to sell 150 000 tickets in total for its three-day summer festival taking part in london's finsbury park but the announcement of this year's headline act marks a controversial move from organizers particularly as it comes a week after the arson attack on jewish charity ambulances in north london so how will the billing play out in today's episode i speak to josh rom a culture journalist and broadcaster who has reported on Kanye's many assaults on the Jewish community. Here's my chat with Josh. Hi Josh, thanks so much for jumping on the Standard podcast. It is great to have you here.

2:14Honestly, thank you so much for having me. I actually started off my career at the Evening Standard. This is really like a nice full circle, really nice moment for me actually. I'm excited. Well, welcome back. Thank you. Thank you. So Josh, we are here to talk about the announcement that Kanye West will be headlining London's Wireless Festival this summer held in Finsbury Park. He's going to be headlining for all three days. Now, we are of course having this discussion about a week after the arson attack on Jewish charity ambulances. And as we speak, Jews around the world will be celebrating Passover.

2:56So Josh, firstly, regardless of the decision to book Kanye for these gigs, do you think wireless should have delayed the announcement? I mean, wireless, unfortunately, have every right to announce what they want to announce. But I think just in general, this is an absolutely shameful booking. We're not just seeing rising levels of anti-Semitism. We're seeing now extreme levels of anti-Semitism, the worst that arguably it's ever been since the 1930s in Germany. Diaspora Jews all around the world are having conversations whether they're safe in their own countries. Seeing an artist like this who has openly promoted anti-Semitism and fundamentally there is still a risk that he might do so again, having a song, releasing a song called Harl Hitler and yet he's being welcomed back onto a huge stage in the British music industry with open arms as the big headline act when there is such a big risk corporately as well that he could continue to be anti-Semitic.

3:59With Pepsi sponsoring the event as well. Yeah and I think this is a very strange decision from Pepsi. I know Pepsi has always made, culturally has been a huge tentpole for cultural acts and has wanted to have this kind of very much an inclusive messaging. I find it very surprisingly that they would want an artist that is seen to be as toxic like this under their banner. And Josh, why do you think Wireless decided to book Ye, or Kanye as we'll refer to him throughout the episode, why do you think Wireless decided to book him for all three days? You know, they could have just booked him for The Last Night or as an opening act.

4:40Do you think this is a rage bait move? Well, I look at it from Kanye's perspective and I would assume that Kanye doesn't really have that many bookings at the moment. So if Wireless was saying to him, hey, we'd like you to perform, it could have been that he would have offered to have done, hey, guys, I would like to do all three days if you want me to. I can do all of that if you want me to. And they've probably gone, oh, OK, bring it on. Because it's, listen, if they booked him for one night, three nights, it doesn't matter. They still booked him. They're still risking making their event a tentpole event for anti-Semitism.

5:18And, for example, we look at it from Glastonbury when we see Bob Villain and Kneecap. um bob villan chanting death to the idf and kneecap obviously having their ongoing cases when it comes to anti-semitism and promoting terrorist causes and all of that sort of stuff the difference is is with kanye west he has actively promoted pure not just you know quote unquote political discourse around israel he has promoted unashamedly so anti-semitism like that That Super Bowl advert directing people to a page to then buy T-shirts with swastikas on, that is he is commercializing Nazi paraphernalia and promoting it to his own game and will benefit financially from selling of those Nazi T-shirts.

6:13And for example, all of his tweets previously saying going DEF CON on Jewish people and saying, now I can say what I like about Jews and all of this stuff, like it has gone far beyond kind of Israel-Palestine discourse. This is out and out, unashamedly anti-Semitic propaganda effectively that he's been doing, especially with the song How Hitler. I also think it sends out a terrible feminist message as well, because look at arguably, look at what he does and the stunts that he pulls with Bianca Sensori. So, you know, who he's in the relationship with I just think booking him as a whole like there is a reason why not many other places have booked him there is a reason why Adidas have dropped him there is a reason potentially I think why he's doing all three dates not just one date and that's because maybe I don't think he has that much else going on and do you think that wireless will be as popular as ever?

7:13I mean, the capacity is for around 50 ,000 attendees per day. So that's 150 ,000 music fans across the weekend. Do you think that people will still go as normal? They'll sell out the tickets standard year for them? Well, I believe very much in culture being a place to bring people together. And I can also imagine that so many people will be wanting to go to wireless to see acts that aren't Kanye. And I could also, I have also seen a lot of social media backlash, particularly from feminists that have said, why have you booked Kanye as well? Wireless are receiving backlash for this booking as well.

7:55And that is undeniable. And I have seen that online today. But that's the thing I think only time will tell. I think they've only just made this announcement. I think corporately, both wireless and Pepsi will probably be facing pressure now. So let's see how the next few days hold up. And what message does, you know, a huge, it's a mainstream festival, platforming a self-professed Nazi in central London send to the city itself and to its Jewish community? Yeah, I think it sends a dreadful message. I think it says that, you know what, you could be anti-Semitic and, you know, you'll still be welcomed onto a main stage.

8:41It says that you can literally praise Hitler and commercialise Nazi propaganda. And yeah, you'll still be welcomed back onto the main stage of a huge major festival. I think it sends the message that not only is anti-Semitism allowed and tolerated, but actually we're going to be almost celebrating that. And that is what I think is super scary is when we're seeing record levels of anti-Semitism, when we're seeing a terrorist attack in Manchester, when we're seeing hot solar ambulances being set alight, set ablaze, when we're seeing dozens of terrorist plots being foiled, then you're saying, okay, well, here's one of the main proponents of anti-Semitism worldwide, and we're just going to give him a major platform.

9:32We don't care about the risk. Oh, yeah, great. You know, he could do do it again for all we know he could have another mental episode but that's okay we're going to give him a stage and not just a stage to perform but you know there is always the risk that he could do a bob bob villain that there is a risk that he could go further than kneecap there is a risk that he could do even more than that that he can say all sorts of stuff on that stage in front of a live crowd and the fact of the matter is is there is so much anti-Jewish hatred at the moment out there that unfortunately something like that might receive a cheer and that literally sends shivers down my spine it sends the message fundamentally that not only is anti-semitism tolerated but actually we can celebrate it and that in itself is not okay

10:32We'll take a break here. Coming up, I asked Josh what he makes of the argument that Kanye is a satirical figure and how likely it is that he will actually headline. We'll be back here in just a moment.

11:10We'll be right back. store for details.

11:23Welcome back. Let's get back to my chat with Josh.

11:29Josh, what would you say to the argument that Kanye is a jokester, a satirical figure, and that his art is taken too seriously and that he doesn't, you know, mean these things literally? Well, I don't think it's satirical at all. I see somebody that has a lot of mental health issues, fundamentally. Anti-Semitism should never be excused. Racism should never be excused. And that's the problem I think we saw with the BAFTAs this year is we cannot excuse what was said. But then at the same time, he could not physically help himself due to his Tourette's condition, due to his medical condition. I don't see anything satirical about Kanye at all.

12:13But what I do see is somebody that I would hope should get help for his mental health conditions. And this isn't me trying to make up an excuse for Kanye, because I, again, as I said before, any sort of form of racism. and in this case we're looking at it through the lens of anti-semitism that should never be excused as a jew i would never ever ever excuse anti-semitism but i do look at the place in which it comes from and is this malicious it could be it could absolutely still be malicious but does it also come from a place where he doesn't know what he's saying and he doesn't know the full impact of what he's saying when it comes to oh taking things what kanye says literally if we don't do that it has to be from a mental health standpoint and not a satirical standpoint because we should i never ever ever want to label a song called harl hitler and a t-shirt with a swastika on i will never want to label that as art.

13:21And Josh, do you think there's anything that Kanye could do or say in the run up to this gig that would actually make him cancelable insofar as cancel the three-day gig? Only time will tell. He could be well behaved. He could be meeting rabbis. He could make more apologies. He could say video statements. He could say, I love Jews. I'm so sorry for the help the community you know there's all sorts that he could visit jewish charities collaborate with jewish charities you know there's all sorts of things that he could do to help improve his image but as i said before in this podcast wireless and pepsi it's a it's a risk because if he has another mental health episode and he goes off on jews and starts sprouting out more anti-semitism well that's on them they're the ones that have chosen to book him they're the ones that have chosen to platform that if connie was to prove the the critics right that i'm sure wireless and pepsi would then have to take action but again that's all hypothetical i could very much see a situation where no one does anything ticket sales don't plummet and the festival goes ahead and then what we see at the festival there and then well that's what we'll see we don't know what we're going to see fully but i think we're going to have to see the ticket sales are people going to be asking for refunds?

14:40Is the backlash that Wireless and Pepsi are already facing, is that going to grow? Where an event like this becomes untenable? That's what I'm going to be looking out for. Well, it sounds like the Jewish community are going to be holding their breath, really, until that moment. I mean, forget holding their breath, we're up in arms. The campaign against anti-Semitism have already done stuff. The Jewish News have already run an op-ed. There There is proper backlash to this from the Jewish community, and rightly so, because when the Jewish community at the moment is on edge, fears are heightened, particularly during a religious holiday, as we say, Yom Teh.

15:19Fears are already heightened. The Jewish community is already petrovised. The Jewish community is already evaluating their future in the United Kingdom. We're not just holding our breaths. We're saying this is not right and this shouldn't be right. And from a cultural standpoint, if Kanye really is against anti-Semitism and he really is sorry for the frankly evil stuff that he's done, the commercialization of Nazi paraphernalia, all the statements that he's made previously, if he's really against them, then prove it. Actions speak louder than words, Kanye. Yay. Easy. Whatever you want to go by.

15:57If you want to prove that you're truly against it, prove it. Well, thank you so much, Josh, for sharing all of this with us on The Standard Podcast. My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. And that's The Standard. For all the latest news, head to standard.co.uk. If you're new here, hit follow and give us a rating. If you'd like to get in touch, email us at podcasts at standard.co.uk. We'll be back here after the Easter weekend. We'll see you then.

16:58We'll be right back. Space. The two-day sale, Friday and Saturday only at Darvin. Restrictions apply. See you store for details.