Kanye West has taken a fresh swipe at Pete Davidson, and it is – as ever – a step too far.
The 45-year-old rapper, who now prefers to be known as Ye, shared an Instagram post in which he declared the Saturday Night Live comedian "dead". “Skete [a nickname Kanye has been using to refer to Pete] Davidson dead at the age of 28”, reads a fake mock-up of a New York Times front page.
“They had tons of chemistry, and still do, but she kind of wants to be single and date."
The explicit shade towards Pete follows the news that Kim Kardashian, 41, Kanye's ex wife with whom he shares four children, and the Saturday Night Live comedian have split up. The break-up between Kim & Pete was announced last Saturday, after the couple had been together for nine months. “They had tons of chemistry, and still do, but she kind of wants to be single and date," a source told Entertainment Daily of the split.
Kanye has 16.3 million followers on Instagram, and his fake New York Times post has already garnered over a million likes. However, many believe Kanye's treatment of Pete – who, like Kanye, has suffered from mental health issues in the past and spoken publicly about it – has gone too far, with some accusing him of “bullying” Pete. Comments read: “This is harassment and it’s not funny", “Love, take a lil nap, we love you, but take a moment”, “Thought you were getting help for this bullying shit. Your kids are watching you. Do better.”
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Whether the split will finally stop Kanye's repeated jibes at Pete is unclear, as this social media post is another example of the posts Kanye has been sharing aimed at Pete ever since the relationship between Kim and Pete was made public last year.
While the rest of Kanye's Instagram posts have been deleted (leaving a grid with just one image on it), he has previously posted jibes at Pete across various mediums, including notably the music video for his song, ‘Eazy’, where he buries the head of a clay figure believed to depict Pete.
There was also an incident on Valentine's Day, when Kanye sent a truck of roses to be delivered to his ex-wife's door and issued threats towards Pete, forcing the latter to respond in a text exchange where he said, “I'm gonna stop being nice” – later published via screenshots in Page Six.
The exchange has come to light via text screenshots shared on Instagram.
The front page mock-up has a subtitle that throws a jab at Kid Cudi, a musician who was forced to cut his headline set at Rolling Loud festival short after the crowd threw bottles at him. He was filling in for Kanye, who had dropped out of the headline spot at the Portugal-based festival )hence the bottles thrown at replacement Kid Cudi in Kanye's absence) but then made a surprise appearance anyway.
