Kanye West is not famous for being a wallflower. Throughout his career, he has delivered some of the most shocking moments and statements in pop culture history. Having quite literally compared himself to ‘God’ in the past, West boasts an almost divine confidence in his own ideas – ones he often inflicts on other people too.

From saying slavery was ‘a choice’ in a TMZ interview in 2018 to grabbing the microphone out of Taylor Swift’s hands at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009 and saying her award should have gone to Beyoncé; West has long cemented his status as a provocateur.

It was his stint on the Grammys red carpet, however, that most recently put West’s name in the headlines. The rapper reportedly told his wife Bianca Censori to ‘make a scene’ as she posed naked for photos with nothing but a clear, mesh fabric covering her torso, as West watched on fully clothed.

Was this an empowering example of self-expression, or another divisive West-esque publicity stunt? I suppose part of the allure is never finding out. While West has spoken openly about his mental health in the past, revealing in 2016 that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder following a mental health breakdown, he has since claimed he is not bipolar and actually has autism. Appearing on The Download podcast, he said he had been questioning his original diagnosis and came to find out ‘it’s really a case of autism I have’.

As a public figure, however, his actions often have far reaching consequences, even with the context of his neurodivergence or potential mental illness. Let’s look back at Kanye West’s top 10 stunts over the years…

1.        ‘Imma let you finish…’

Let’s take ourselves back to 2009 when the fresh-faced new artist Taylor Swift was collecting her award for Best Female Video at the 2009 MTV VMAs. She grabbed the microphone to begin her speech, as you do, when West leapt onto the stage from the shadows and took it out of her hand. ‘Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you,’ he interrupted. ‘I’m going to let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.’

Swift, who was 19 years old at the time, was scarred by the experience and said it felt like ‘a career death’. Beyoncé watched on looking equally mortified and invited Swift back on stage to finish her speech when she won Video of the Year. And West was booed off the stage.

2.        Call me Martin Louis the King Jr

When West collaborated with Louis Vuitton in 2009 to launch a line of high-top trainers, he was so proud of his work that he asked fans to address him as ‘Martin Louis the King, Jr’ moving forward.

Here is the quote in full, for your benefit. ‘Who do you know with two thumbs and their own Louis shoe? This guy,’ West said pointing to himself. ‘I’ve been called a lot of names, mostly the “Louis Vuitton Don”, and due to what has happened so severely, when the red shoes hit the runway, I was forced to change my name to “Martin Louis the King Jr”. Address me as such.’

3.        Everything must go!

Before West started dating Kim Kardashian in 2012, she was a chunky beaded necklace and blazer-wearing Calabasas Queen. ‘I was obsessed with glitter, rhinestone heels and the kind of clothes I now laugh at,’ she once said, ‘and he threw them all out.’ In one episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, her flat was swamped with big bags upon bin bags of clothes that West had thrown out as he vowed to completely overhaul her personal style – and in turn her public image.

While his styling earned Kardashian, and later her family, legitimate credentials in the fashion industry for the first time, his undue influence was often overbearing. In one episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, West criticised Kardashian’s 2019 Met Gala outfit the night before the event. ‘You are my wife, and it affects me when picture are too sexy,’ he tells her. Adding that, as her husband and the father of her children, it affects his ‘soul’ and his ‘spirit’ when she looks ‘hot’.

West made a habit of dissecting every aspect of Kardashian’s look, growing irate if she stepped out of line. In one episode she tells her sister Kourtney that she had received an email from her husband telling her she cannot wear big sunglasses anymore. ‘It’s all about tiny little glasses,’ she said. ‘He called me afterwards. He told me my career was over and then showed me a picture of Marge Simpson wearing something similar.’

4.        Kim and Kanye go for a ride

In the video ‘Bound 2’, the final track from his album Yeezus, West is seen on a motorbike riding through various green screen desert landscapes as his naked fiancé sits on his lap with her hair blowing in the wind. It features wild horses, sunsets, the Grand Canyon and he and Kardashian appear to simulate sex.

For some, it was a sardonic play at white American culture, with West deliberately centring himself as part of the joke. For most, it was an intentionally bizarre insight into the couple’s sex life and West’s wildest imagination. A VICE review at the time summarised it by saying, ‘These days, Kanye West constantly looks like he’s coming up on a ten pound pinger.’

Whatever the intention, it got a lot of people talking, and that’s often what West is hoping for.

5.        The controversial ‘Famous’ music video

Ever one not to let things go, West called back to the Swift VMA saga in his 2016 single, ‘Famous’. Lying next to a wax figure of Swift in bed, West raps ‘I made that b**ch famous’.

He claimed to get approval from Swift before releasing the song, but Swift denied the claim and later called the lyric ‘misogynistic’. Several months later, Kardashian released a three-minute video capturing part of the conversation between Swift and West in which Swift appears to approve part of the lyric. In 2020, a 25-minute uncut version resurfaced and established that West did not tell Swift about the specific line that caused offence.

That year, Swift won Album of the Year at the Grammys and seemed to refer to West’s dig in her speech, mentioning ‘those people along the way who are going to try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame’.

6.        When he said slavery is ‘a choice’

West has never shied away from controversy, but his perhaps most offensive ‘take’ to date was when he said 400 years of slavery is ‘a choice’ in a TMZ interview in 2018. The rapper, who around that time expressed his support for Donald Trump, broached the topic of slavery after talking about the president.

‘When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years? That sounds like a choice,’ he said, rather astoundingly. ‘You was there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all. It’s like we’re mentally in prison. I like the word of prison because slavery goes too direct to the idea of blacks. Slavery is to Blacks as the Holocaust is to Jews. Prison is something that unites as one race, Blacks and Whites, we’re the human race.’

His comments were met by widespread incredulity and anger. Will.i.am told Good Morning Britain that West’s comments were ‘ignorant’ and ‘broke my heart’. Civil rights activist Deray McKesson said West ‘continues to fuel the racist right-wing folks who believe that black people are responsible for their oppression.’ While TV host Marc Lamont Hill added, ‘There has never been a moment in history when Black people didn’t resit slavery.’

7.        Repeated antisemitic outbursts

Four years later, West targeted a different group. He took to X to write that he was ‘going death con 3 on Jewish people’. Sharing a screenshot of a conversation he had with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, West wrote, ‘Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me.’ He also tapped into another antisemitic trope by writing, ‘You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.’

Later that year, during an interview with the right-wing pundit Alex Jones, West said, ‘I see good things about Hitler. Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler.’

His vitriolic comments prompted Adidas to cut ties with the rapper and terminate their partnership. It also led to an unsurprising wave of backlash, with the national director and chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, calling West a ‘vicious antisemite’ who ‘put Jews in danger’.

In 2023, West posted an apology in Hebrew on Instagram. ‘I sincerely apologise to the Jewish community,’ he wrote. ‘It was not my intention to hurt or demean, and I deeply regret any pain I may have caused. I am committed to starting with myself and learning from this experience to ensure greater sensitivity and understanding in the future.’

8.        The Kardashian takedown

There’s taking a divorce badly, then there’s West. When Kardashian called time on their marriage in 2021, the rapper became known for his erratic outbursts on social media. He would often make baseless and derogatory comments about Kardashian, her family and their marriage.

‘If I get locked up like Mandela y’all will know why,’ he wrote on X. ‘Everybody knows the movie Get Out is about me,’ he wrote in another. The Kardashians did not respond to the posts, which have since been deleted.

His posts led to Khloe Kardashian issuing a public plea for West to stop on social media. ‘You are the father of my nieces and nephews and I’m trying to be respectful but please STOP tearing Kimberly down and using our family when you want to deflect,’ she wrote. The emotional toll the period took on the Kardashian Jenner family was also explored extensively on The Kardashians.

In an interview on Good Morning America that September, West said, ‘This is the mother of my children and I apologise for any stress that I have caused, even in my frustration, because God calls me to be stronger.’

9.        The Venice boat ban

In 2022, West married his former Yeezy employee, Bianca Censori, and their relationship has been nothing short of controversial from the start. After reportedly marrying in secret, Censori is often in the headlines for her near naked outfits, she sometimes doesn’t even wear shoes. Meanwhile, West is always fully dressed and often wearing a mask or sunglasses.

In September 2023, the couple found themselves banned from a Venice boat company after being photographed on a water taxi in a compromising position. West was pictured with his trousers down while Censori appeared to be crouching between his legs. Following the release of the photos, the boat company issued a statement that the famous couple are no longer welcome on future trips.

A spokesperson for Venezia Turismo Motoscafi explained that the driver had not seen ‘these obscenities’ because they were looking out for traffic. ‘We completely dissociate ourselves from such acts and behaviour. Mr West and his wife will certainly no longer be welcome on board our company’s boat’s.’

10.  Naked on the red carpet

West’s latest stunt was, of course, Censori’s naked red carpet look at the Grammys. According to Nicola Hickling, who interpreted of a video of Censori and West on the red carpet for the Mirror US, West can be lipread saying, ‘Make a scene, I’ll say it’ll make so much sense… Drop it behind you and then turn…You’re making a scene now… I got you.’

He very much appears to be the mastermind behind the look, or stunt, whatever you want to call it. In fact, that is in large part why so many people found the whole thing so uncomfortable.

She has worn some whacky things – from black duct tape pants to nude thongs and pillow tops – but this was Censori’s most shocking outfit to date. If leaving photographers, fans and the entire internet dumbfounded was the objective, they certainly succeeded. It’s hard to imagine where Censori’s looks could go next, but we’re sure West has something up his sleeve….