Yesterday, Kanye West took to Instagram and Twitter to thank a controversial affiliate of his—A$AP Bari, A$AP Mob co-founder and designer of VLONE. West first thanked Bari, who was arrested on two sexual assault charges earlier this year, for his mentorship during the creation of West’s Lil Pump collaboration “I Like It” (The song is currently hanging at #1 on the Billboard charts.) A$AP Bari’s arrest stemmed from a video that surfaced last year that allegedly shows Bari assaulting a woman physically in a hotel room after demanding sex from her.
In his post, Kanye wrote that Bari had “broke[n him] out of [his] pretentious rich nigga shell” and expressed his solidarity for both Bari and XXXTentacion, who was also accused and facing legal action on sexual assault charges prior to his death in June. “Bari challenged me when no one else did and when he got in trouble I was scared to say he was my friend just like I did with xxx and that was some pussy shit on my part,” West wrote. He continued: “I let the perception and the robots control me. That’s the true sunken place.”
West closed with a disparaging allusion to the cultural shift in attitude toward sexual assault and misconduct charges. “Jedis never let perception and cancel culture get between them,” he wrote. A$AP Bari was among the musicians spotted in Jackson Hole, Wyoming earlier this year, during the time West had decamped there to work on new music. Read West’s full post below.
