Kanye West pulled from Grammys performance line-up for 'concerning online behaviour'

It comes days after Ye was suspended from Instagram for a racial slur he directed at Trevor Noah

Instagram recently blocked rapper Kanye West from using his account for 24 hours for violating the social network's harassment policy amid his acrimonious divorce from reality star Kim Kardashian. AFP

In the same week rapper Kanye West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, was banned from Instagram, he's now been barred from performing at the Grammys, according to a report in Variety magazine.

The move was first reported in The Blast entertainment news website, as a representative for the All Falls Down singer confirmed he'd been pulled from the awards' performance line-up owing to his "concerning online behaviour".

Ye, who is up for five Grammy awards, was not officially announced as a performer, but could be a planned addition.

The Blast report said Ye's team received a phone call on Friday informing him he had been "unfortunately" removed from the line-up. A representative from the team sent the link to Variety, saying, "this is confirmed", although no further comments have been made by Ye's team nor the Recording Academy and CBS, which present the Grammys.

“Our sources say Kanye’s team isn’t surprised by the decision,” said The Blast report.

Ye was suspended from Instagram for 24 hours after he directed a racial slur at The Daily Show host, South African comedian Trevor Noah, 38, who is also hosting the Grammys on April 3.

Noah is the writing partner of Kim Kardashian’s boyfriend Pete Davidson.

The social media attack came after Noah spoke about Ye's public and "belligerent" attacks and harassment directed towards Kardashian after their split.

"You may not feel sorry for Kim because she’s rich and famous, because of the way she dresses, because she appropriates black culture, because she tells women they’re lazy, broke the internet and then didn’t put it back together, whatever, you hate her," Noah said during a segment on The Daily Show.

"But what she's going through is terrifying to watch and shines a spotlight on what so many women go through when they choose to leave."

The phrase used by Ye to insult Noah is said to refer to a black person who is anti-black.

Noah responded to Ye's comments, saying: “You’re an indelible part of my life Ye. Which is why it breaks my heart to see you like this.

“I don’t care if you support Trump and I don’t care if you roast Pete. I do however care when I see you on a path that’s dangerously close to peril and pain … Don’t ever forget, the biggest trick racists ever played on black people was teaching us to strip each other of our blackness whenever we disagree. Tricking us into dividing ourselves up into splinters so that we would never unite into a powerful rod.”

Hours after the suspension, social media users flooded the comments section of fashion label Gap's account, imploring the brand to sever ties with the rapper.

Ye signed a 10-year agreement in 2020 to design and sell clothes under the Yeezy Gap label. The deal, rumoured to be worth about $970 million according to Bloomberg, has so far produced two collections, with a third, the Yeezy Gap X Balenciaga collaboration, unveiled in February. All collections have sold out minutes after launch.

Kardashian filed for divorce from Ye in February 2021 and was declared legally single on March 2. She's been publicly dating Davidson since last year.

Ye has since unleashed regular public attacks on Davidson, for example by including lyrics in the song Eazy threatening to "beat" him and creating a claymation video of Davidson being kidnapped, buried and decapitated.

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