Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, is selling swastika-emblazoned T-shirts for $20, defying his own safety warnings and igniting backlash on social media after a controversial Super Bowl ad in Los Angeles.

In a move that has left many shaking their heads (and not just in disbelief), Ye is selling T-shirts featuring a swastika—despite warning just days ago that such items could endanger his well-being. As social media erupts in outrage and anti-hate organizations urge Shopify to take action, the controversial rapper appears determined to push boundaries in ways that leave us all wondering if perhaps he’s accidentally stepped into a time machine set to 1933.

The T-shirts went live on Ye's website over the weekend, sending shockwaves through, well, pretty much everyone on the internet. This shocking product launch comes after a week of increasingly destructive rhetoric from the artist, who recently took an affinity for derogatory antisemitic remarks on his X account. Perhaps the only thing for sale more outrageous than these shirts is Ye’s commitment to staying in the limelight for all the wrong reasons.

Just when you thought the Super Bowl couldn't get more controversial, Ye aired a local ad promoting his brand in the Los Angeles area. This decision to run a Super Bowl commercial for a T-shirt featuring a swastika has many scratching their heads, pondering whether the ad was intended to inspire laughter, outrage, or that feeling right before you hit 'oops' on a message meant for your therapist's eyes only.

Adding to the head-scratching events, Ye’s X account, where he had over 32 million followers, was deactivated amidst a flurry of antisemitic posts. Although Ye has been known to take risks (both creatively and otherwise), this recent spree seemed like a bit much.

Prior to the T-shirts hitting the virtual shelves, Ye had proclaimed with gusto that he would never sell such shirts due to 'safety reasons.' It appears this declaration lasted as long as his usual attention span—approximately a moment longer than an Instagram story. His audacity to contradict himself sets a new standard in the realm of attempting to sound reasonable while being everything but.

In 2022, Ye found himself suspended from Twitter for promoting violence, and while reinstated in July 2023, it seems the goals of this 'new beginning' prompted a defining question: How much lower can we go? His latest antics, featuring T-shirts glorifying a symbol with a dark past, answer that query with a resounding, "Hold my drink, watch this!"

Shopify, the platform behind these dubious sales, has notably declined to respond to inquiries regarding its handling of orders. This reluctance to comment is not surprising; typically, companies prefer to keep their heads down when one of their associated brands resembles an audition for a circus act gone awry. As anti-hate organizations and celebrities united in pleading against the sale, one can't help but imagine Shopify’s customer service team hastily gathering for a meeting to discuss whether 'invisibility' is a valid business strategy.

In the face of this disarray, the question remains: can a brand recover from this type of negative publicity? Ye certainly seems to think he can navigate any storm, the way a sailor with a mysterious leak onboard might confidently steer the ship through turbulent waters. However, the real test will be whether he learns from this escapade or if he simply amplifies the volume for the next misstep—a question many are eager to see answered, preferably from a safe distance.