Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) has repurposed Kanye West‘s “White Lives Matter” shirt with the help of Spanish-Moroccan artist Anuar Khalifi.
Late Thursday night (October 6), the “Umi Says” rapper shared a collaborative Instagram post with Khalifi in which Bey first appears with his back turned to the camera. Printed on the back of his long-sleeved shirt is Ye’s now infamous reimagining of the Black Lives Matter slogan in white with the letter “v” appearing in Black, thus spelling “White Lies Matter.”
The photo set includes Bey — who’s worked with Kanye on numerous songs and was previously signed to his G.O.O.D. Music label — modeling the back of the shirt in white before showing off the front of the shirt, which bears a photo of Georg Hegel with his eyes covered by a black bar.
The German philosopher is best know for having defined the Hegelian Dialectic, the philosophy that the contradiction between a concept and its antithesis (or opposite concept) can be resolved by a higher level of truth.
Bey and Khalifi also appear side by side in the post, which is simply captioned with the words “AnYa” — a combination of Anuar and Yasiin — and “HEGEL 2022” alongside the artists’ IG handles.
Despite three different versions of the shirt being showcased in the IG post, it’s unclear whether the shirt will be available for purchase. At press time, they do not appear in the shop section of Khalifi’s website, which is linked in his Instagram bio.
While the shirt seems to be a critique or counterpoint to Kanye West’s infamous shirt, which he debuted at his Yeezy fashion show in Paris earlier this week, Ye shared artist Jessica Care Moore’s repost of Yasiin Bey’s “White Lies Matter” photos to his Instagram Story.
Ye did not add a caption or comment to the post, but did include Moore’s original caption, which read: “Some beautiful balance from @yasiinbey & @anuarkhalifi #artistfamily.”
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Kanye’s “White Lives Matter” shirt has been at the center of a storm of media and celebrity criticism since photos from his Paris Fashion Week show emerged online on Monday (October 3). While he’s been condemned by several public figures including Ahmad Arbery’s mother Wanda Cooper-James and Diddy, albeit less sternly, Ye has made statements standing by the messaging on the shirts.
On Thursday afternoon, the Chicago rapper shared a screenshot of a text conversation with his father, in which the elder West seemed to approve of the “White Lives Matter” slogan. Ye captioned his Instagram Story: “Donda would have understood it too,” referring to his mother, who many have evoked in their criticism of the shirts.
Kanye West also appeared on Fox News on Thursday to explain why he included the “White Lives Matter” shirts in his latest Yeezy collection.
“My favorite response, ’cause I kept on thinking, ‘They’re looking for an explanation,’” he told Tucker Carlson. “And people say, ‘Well, as an artist, you don’t have to give an explanation, but as a leader, you do.’ So the answer to why I wrote ‘White Lives Matter’ on a shirt is, because they do. It’s the obvious thing.
“At a certain point, it felt like I saw white people wearing shirts that said ‘Black Lives Matter’ like they were doing me such a favor by having a T-shirt that reminded me that my life mattered, like I didn’t already know that,” he said. “So I thought I’d return the favor and let white people know that, ‘Hey, your life matters too.’”
All these rappers feelings are really butt hurt that Kanye didnt go along with the narrative. They are all a bunch of sheep and Kanye is the smart one. And thats coming from a guy who never liked Kanyes music and always laughed at his antics. Kanyes shirt wasnt racist. This shit is. Think about it for a second. Kanye and Candace Owens made the shirts. White people had nothing to do with that incident. And what does Mos Def do as a response ? He creates his own shirt attacking white people (who had nothing to do with the creation of Kanye’s shirt) Fuck Mos Def. He is a fucking racist.
True that, meaning his take of it actually discredits the truth of White Lives Matter.
White people saying racism lol
I don’t think the shirt confirms that he is a racist. You missed the point. The people who originally made the White Lives Matter shirts made them in response to Black Lives Matter shirts. So if your logic holds up, that means that the people who originally made the White Lives Matter shirts are racist because, as you suggested, by responding with their own shirt as a response to the Black Lives Matter shirts, they were”attacking” Black people. I know you didn’t mean to say that but you did. Suggestion: Check your logic before you drop a turd on the internet. Kids might get the wrong idea, “OG”…
You outta be calling kanye racist because he wasnt trying to make yall feel good and included with the shirt. He said “a black man pointing out the obvious. In case you missed it, the shirt’s idea is actually that there is nothing remarkable about the statement “White Lives Matter”. He even shared Def’s design which means he supports.
Oh wow how creative, how cool and edgy LOL . Man’s almost what 60? Black people rly need to start growing up mentality you really have this group poor, child like mentality. Racist to every group but whine like kids when someone has different opinions
So now you’re qualified to tell Black people what they “really need to do”? Let me traffic 400 years of your future generations then tell them what they really need to do. L, your name is perfect.
African and Arabian cultures created slavery
hold this L and just admit you love black people. your on hiphop site commenting on what a black man is doing. you will be back again to comment because you cant help your love for everything black. from the style, music to how mfs talk. aint no need to change no mentality when mfs like you wanna be black so bad.
Lmaoo yall rly go around wearing white man suits and fitted cloths, living in our imagined homes, using all our technology all our European clothing brands talking our language playing all our sports.. still crying and begging for whites acceptance.. tellcme what I want i be again for coming on a hiphop site LMAO
I love playing who wants to be a diff race!
Ok so iwant to be black sooo bad bc I go on hhxc LOL ok so you wear white m an suits and name brand european fashion cloths, live in white created homes(not African mud huts) play all our created sports, speak all our sports and everyday ur peeps BEG us for acceptance.. all u want is us to put our arms around u and tell u we love u LOL
You sound like you need to talk to different black people cause you starting to sound like exactly what you’re talking trash about. Rich white people usually cackle and move on from racism because they know it doesnt affect them. You must be poor lol
Trust me we all laugh but you obv need help f I’m poor bc I comment than that makes you…?
Richer than your trailer park ass
Let’s be real the only people who listen to Mos Def are white
Beg too differ but go off ?
Why are trying to trade away one of the greats? Y’all are weird for attentiob
Conscious rappers getting WOKE ?. Where’s Common and Talib at on this?
White Lies Don’t Matter!!
Mos Def > Kanye West all the way
Kanye West and Candace Owens added gas to the fire. He should’ve spoke about his issues with BLM. Wearing a WLM shirt was dumb.
Yes, Mos Def! Waiting on that ‘BLM lies matter’ too! Or ‘White People stop buying my records’.
Kanye is jizzing in his pants right now at the thought of all this attention.
“Nothing great in the world was accomplished without passion.” “We learn from history that we do not learn from history.” “To be independent of public opinion is the first formal condition of achieving anything great.”
Are all familiar with the philosopher referenced?
He can design his straight jacket in all different colours. Stop that philosopher bs.