For the first time in who knows how long, Kanye West is actually trying to wriggle his way out of an explosive, contentious situation. On his Instagram Stories, West tried to distance himself from the viral feud erupting between Bhad Bhabie and Alabama Barker, the daughter of Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and stepdaughter of Kourtney Kardashian (also West’s former sister-in-law).
West was roped into the situation after Bhad Bhabie sampled the ¥$ (West and Ty Dolly $ign) track “Carnival” for her diss track, “Ms. Whitman.” Then, on Instagram Live last night, Bhad Bhabie appeared to tease a new unreleased verse from West recorded for the song. The short snippet didn’t include anything particularly relevant to the beef, with West instead rapping about dropping his own crypto coin (something he has threatened to do amidst his latest string of antisemitic and offensive remarks).
Now, however, West appeared to want nothing to do with any of it and even seemed to suggest the snippet Bhad Bhabie shared was AI-generated. “I’m not in the middle, none of this AI beef, people throwing my voice on things, the whole ‘Carnival’ sample,” West insisted. “I just talked to Travis Barker; I would never be in the middle.” (A rep for Barker did not immediately return a request for comment.)
Then, in arguably his most relatable moment in years, West said: “I don’t even know what’s going on.”
West went on to insist that he was just “sent a song” and asked to clear the sample. He said he did, only because of all the times he’s been stymied while trying to clear samples in the past. “I owe it to anybody that ask me,” he said. (“Carnival” notably had its own sample controversy, with Ozzy Osbourne accusing West of releasing the song with a sample of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” which Osbourne had previously denied him the right to use.)
“But,” West continued, “I’m not cool with being put in the middle of all of this at all. So any verse that’s going viral using my voice and all that, I didn’t do it.”
If, like West, you have no idea what’s going on, the beef between Bhad Bhabie and Barker dates back a few months after the former accused the latter of trying to steal her then-boyfriend, Le Vaughn (including making overtures while Bhabie was undergoing cancer treatment). Barker has denied the claims, alleging that Vaughn approached her instead. Bhad Bhabie moved the feud into diss track territory earlier this month when she dropped “Over Cooked”; Barker then responded with “Cry Bhabie,” which prompted Bhabie to release “Ms. Whitman.”
