Kanye West and The Game’s new single “Eazy” isn’t just making waves for its Pete Davidson diss. The song’s artwork, which features a skinned monkey, has been condemned by the animal rights organization PETA.
“MY LIFE WAS NEVER EAZY,” both artists captioned the artwork, which features the flayed primate against a blood-red background, ahead of the song’s release. Inexplicably, The Game’s original post was flagged by Instagram as “graphic or violent content” while West’s has not been given the same warning as of press time.
“The photo is reminiscent of the monkeys PETA has found, sometimes heads, sometimes hands, sometimes the whole body, in meat markets around the world and it makes it clear that when you remove the fur you can’t miss that there’s a person in there, that they are fellow primates, and do not belong to us to abuse for any purpose, not in laboratories, roadside zoos, movies, or meat markets,” PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement issued to Billboard.
Check out the artwork in question here at your own risk.
In other news, the Donda rapper is currently under investigation for criminal battery over a heated, physical scuffle with a man who purported to be a fan asking for an autograph. Earlier this week, he was announced as a headliner for Coachella alongside Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, and Swedish House Mafia this upcoming April.
West also released his new video for “Heaven and Hell” last Monday, which doubled as an ad for his latest collaboration with Gap.
The disturbing image of a skinned monkey that @kanyewest shared serves as a reminder that there’s no real difference between humans & other animals.
Their lives aren’t easy when we abuse & kill them for food, experiments, clothing, or entertainment. #EndSpeciesism pic.twitter.com/ApA8McboJy
— PETA (@peta) January 14, 2022