Kanye West’s first number one song in 13 years slammed as ‘a bad thing’-Brooke Ivey Johnson-Entertainment – Metro

Kanye West has a number one song for the first time in 13 years(Picture: Scott Dudelson/FilmMagic)

Kanye West – who has recently insisted on being known simply as Ye – is possibly the most controversial celebrity alive. 

But bad press has not stopped the Yeezy creator, 46, from reaching record-breaking musical success.

He’s once again set the internet on fire as fans react to the news that his Vultures 1 song Carnival, featuring Ty Dolla $ign, Rich the Kid, and Playboi Carti, has claimed the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. 

The milestone marks the rapper’s fifth number-one song and his first in nearly 13 years, extending his span of career number ones to over 20 years and making him the first rapper to achieve this in three distinct decades. 

Vultures 1, a collaborative project with Ty Dolla $ign, is Kanye’s first album since he came under fire for a string of antisemitic remarks and hate speech that caused him to be dropped from several commercial deals. 

Kanye has since apologised for the offensive tirades (a year later) but for many fans, there’s little he can do to make up for his erratic and troubling behaviour in recent years. 

The cover of Vultures 1 features Kanye’s wife Bianca Censori (Picture: Kanye West / Instagram)

Online reactions to news of Carnival’s ascent to number one range from disbelief to anger to – in the case of some diehard Kanye fans – smug celebration. 

User @ShadowTodd put it succinctly, writing: ‘Kanye hitting #1 is just an unequivocally bad thing, in terms of politics and decency and also in terms of, like, having good taste. Truly a miserable time to care about popular music.’

Indeed, many seemed to agree that even without the controversy surrounding West’s personal opinions, Carnival is not a particularly good song.

@alshipley wrote that ‘Carnival being a hit feels like solid evidence that the only diehard Kanye fans left are the idiots with no taste,’ while @sergi1300_ agreed, writing: ‘Since this album has been out for more than a month, can we all agree that it’s Kanye’s worst and that it didn’t meet expectations?’

Others felt that the quality of the song was less important than what supporting Kanye represents politically.

Kanye has also made headlines recently for his influence on wife Bianca Censori’s fashion choices (Picture: Getty Images)

X user @JewishOmniMan wrote: ‘Anyone who listens to Kanye without pirating the music is willingly supporting Naziism and antisemitism and I’m done pretending like that isn’t the case.’ 

Still, some celebrated the artist’s success, giving Kanye credit for hitting number one without the support of a major record label. @wowthatshiphop wrote, ‘Kanye, probably the most blackballed artist rn, hitting #1 independently with both his single & album makes you wonder why any of the big mainstream acts would still be signed to a label.’

User @KevKellum agreed, posting: ‘There isn’t a single artist in history that has the body of work that Kanye does. Dominated rap, production, design and fashion for 20+ years. Greatest career we have ever seen and it’s not even remotely close.’

In classic Kanye fashion, the Life of Pablo hitmaker celebrated his accomplishment with a punctuation-free rant on Instagram. The caption, which has since been deleted, called out Drake, Adidas, ‘every Christian that watched me have my kids taken out of my control,’ and, bizarrely, Hailey Bieber, as all having gotten in the way of his success.

Kanye later deleted the caption, replacing it with: ‘No caption.’

Kanye has become increasingly unhinged over the years, alienating many fans (Picture: Kanye West)

This isn’t the first controversy to erupt around the record-breaking song. The rapper sparked fury when the song first dropped because it featured an unapproved sample of Black Sabbath’s Iron Man.

In response, frontman Ozzy Osborne, 75, said he wanted nothing to do with Kanye, writing on X: ‘I refused permission because he is an antisemite and has caused untold heartache to many.’ He added: ‘I want no association with this man!’ 

Kanye responded by replacing the sample with a sample from his own song, Hell Of A Life, which included a previously cleared Iron Man sample. 

More controversy is certainly soon to follow as Kanye prepares to drop Vultures 2, the second installment in a promised trilogy of albums. The follow-up LP was supposed to be released on Friday, meaning fans are now bracing themselves for the album to roll out at any moment.

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