WW3 is the alleged upcoming eleventh solo studio album by American rapper Kanye West. Media personality DJ Akademiks announced the album during a live stream on April 2, 2025, a week after the release of the title track. Amid the surprise release of his preceding visual album Bully the month prior, West courted controversy by promoting hate speech, including making antisemitic statements, endorsing Nazism, and posting offensive remarks on his X account.
Background
In February 2025, West posted several offensive and instigative comments to his X account, including calling for the freeing of mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs amid his sex trafficking and racketeering charges. Several of West's comments were deemed antisemitic, homophobic, ableist, and misogynistic.
On March 6, West stated that his upcoming music would include "antisemitic sounds". On March 15, he once again identified himself as a Nazi. On March 16, he posted images of a Nazi swastika and the sig runes of the Schutzstaffel, claiming them as his "new album cover" and "new Sunday Service logo", respectively. On March 17, he posted a now-deleted video of himself with Nick Fuentes on Twitter while wearing a chain with a swastika pendant. In the video, West called Fuentes "my white supremacist homeboy".
After portions of it were published by Dave Blunts and Adin Ross, the lead single "WW3" was released on March 26, and was critically panned for its antisemitic lyrics. On March 30, DJ Akademiks held an interview in which West wore a black Ku Klux Klan-inspired outfit and made further controversial remarks including stating that he regrets having children with his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, and that he considers Drake "a million times better" than Kendrick Lamar, as well as negative remarks about various celebrities including Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Playboi Carti, Lamar, and the late Virgil Abloh. The following day, West released the music video to "WW3" on Twitter. The video contains a repurposed scene from the American television miniseries Roots alongside graphic sexual imagery and footage of a KKK gathering.
On April 2, DJ Akademiks announced that WW3 would be released the next day (which did not happen), and shared the track listing. Akademiks also previewed the track "Bianca"; the lyrics of the track concern West's divorce from ex-wife Bianca Censori, pleading with her to "come back". On April 3, West revealed the album cover, which depicts two individuals wearing red and white KKK-inspired outfits posing in front of a stack of hay bales. Snippets of the songs "Heil Hitler", "Jared", and "Nitrous" were revealed on a Twitch livestream with producer Digital Nas.
Track listing
References
