Pete Davidson Doesn't Deserve This
This article was published on February 15 and updated on March 2
When we pointed out that Pete Davidson had Kanye in his feels and lives rent-free in Ye's head a couple months ago, we didn't know just how right we were.
Davidson's relationship with Kim Kardashian recently triggered something dark — but not unfamiliar — in Kanye's psyche.
If you've been living under a rock, you might've missed Ye inexplicably lashing out against Kardashian, Billie Eilish, and Kid Cudi last week and you'd have been much better off for it.
These clashes were delivered through brusque Instagram posts filled with cringey memes (shades of r/The_Donald) and all-caps captions, most deleted as quickly as they were uploaded.
From February 11, Ye began publicly positioning these people as the axis of evil against his own allied forces (none of whom have publicly piped up BTW), pitting himself head-to-head against an unwilling Davidson.
Note that Davidson's sole entry in the petty squabble was a placid plea for peace he texted to Ye shortly after the callouts got personal (screenshotted, leaked, and swiftly removed from Kanye's IG page).
Pretty considerate of Davidson given Ye's OTT posturing. And, of course, "Skete," Ye's childish nickname for Davidson.
Actually, yeah, add the unfunny nickname to the bad memes and Ye's really copping to the vibe of his dragon energy pal, Trump.
Kanye continued uploading disses to Instagram on February 13, complete with barely legible, punctuation-free rants.
He deleted them so quickly, though, that they became impossible to follow (or condone) if you weren't a Yeezy sycophant.
The one particularly low point that stood out, though, was when Kanye encouraged his fans to yell "KimYe" at Pete in public. Harmless fun!
Crazy to think that anyone could possibly think it's not only okay to deliver a truck-full of roses to your estranged ex-wife on Valentine's Day (which Kanye also did) but that it's equally justifiable to encourage a horde of devotees to harass the guy she's dating.
Seriously, if the embarrassingly public situation didn't involve celebrities, there'd probably be restraining order involved, right?
While Ye was fuming on social media, by the way, Davidson and Kardashian apparently had a nice couple's night at a restaurant in Brooklyn.
The drama was trending across the internet all weekend which, really, plays right into Kanye's hands — remember, he's got a new album and Netflix documentary coming out.
It's all part of Kanye's frankly alarming obsession with Kim — makes me wonder if Ye's relationship with Julia Fox ended at least partially because of that. Just a little bit, maybe?
Don't forget, the same week Kanye began throwing tantrums, he went clubbing with a Kim impersonator. Last year, he purchased a house creepily close to his ex-wife.
On February 15, Kanye uploaded a half-hearted apology with proper grammar, though he didn't really take responsibility for futilely dumping on Pete.
The whole thing smacks of a cheap, one-man soap opera (hey, remember when Kanye used to relegate his unwieldy operas to the stage?).
All this isn't to say that I'm Pete's biggest fan, though.
I don't get the appeal, I don't especially care for his style, and I'm not terribly into his comedy or acting.
Nothing personal, he's just not for me.
But this entire situation has made me real sympathetic for all the people soaking up Kanye's impotent rage, Pete most of all.
Especially when reflecting on Pete in the light of this one-sided melee, he really does seem pretty likable by comparison.
I mean, look at Pete and Kim at Knott's Berry Farm back in October: they were having an honest-to-god good time. When was the last time you saw someone as famous as Kim Kardashian giggling down a log flume?
It's especially hard to hate on Pete following Kanye's performance, which is tough to justify even for his biggest fans — top comments on Ye's previous posts include "take a break man," and "please stop posting."
Even if you're a die-hard Kanye zealot unwilling to stray from your idol's side, you've gotta admit that this public drama is dangerous at worst and pointless at best, especially if it's just subliminal marketing for Ye's music.
Pete, gangly-ass Calvin Klein model Pete, doesn't deserve the hate.
Perhaps that's why Pete created another Instagram account, his first in years, which Ye immediately followed and posted about (and deleted).
A white flag? More like another attention grab.
In the weeks since, Kanye has bullied Davidson off Instagram and then, in a totally cool and normal music video revealed March 2 on Ye's Instagram page, buried alive a figure who looks suspiciously similar to the Saturday Night Live star (but in claymation! So it's totally not weird!).
The claymation music video for EAZY — a single Ye recorded with The Game that was revealed with gruesome cover art of a skinned monkey — shows a character dressed like Ye dragging around another tied-up person as the inimitable DONDA house burns and, uh, the "illuminati" stand around.
Ye's stand-in reveals a Davidson-like figure, who is buried alive. Roses then grow from the not-Davidson's head before the title card at the end again mocks "SKETE."
The video has probably been in the works since at least Kanye began dumping on Davidson, so that's why it was suddenly published weeks after the drama cooled. If anything, the poor timing only makes Kanye's one-sided beef look that much more pathetic.
