Wireless Festival Promoter Defends Kanye West as Headliner as Sponsors Pull Out, Asks Brits’ ‘Forgiveness’ for Rapper’s ‘Abhorrent’ Past Statements

"I would ask people to reflect on their instant comments of disgust at the likelihood of him performing and offer some forgiveness and hope to him as I have decided to do" Just straight up "please accept my greed as me being awesome and forgiving"

Offer forgiveness? lol F*** That. Has he even apologized? Or changed? Does he even care? Glad to hear they pulled out of the event.

Dude needs to EARN his forgiveness. Apologizing AGAIN just doesn't cut it. What has he done to educate himself on the harm he has done to the communities he attacked? Nothing but go ahead and go to his concerts then.

Uhhhhh......yeah, no. It's just ABSOLUTELY not EVER gonna happen anytime soon, dawg. They sure as hell got a right to be outraged and offended when they booked Kanye to be the headliner for this year's festival. And uh, with all of that being said this afternoon, perhaps it really would've been a whole another different story if the promoter for the festival just simply stepped up and APOLOGIZED for booking Kanye West as the headliner for this year's Wireless Festival in the UK. Alright? Melvin Benn, one of the people behind the annual festival, just SERIOUSLY should've done exactly that INSTEAD of um, doing whatever the f*** this shit right here really was. OK? Hopefully the festival is currently learning a HUGE lesson from all of this and is planning on being a whole lot more careful in what artists they are booking for future editions of the Wireless Festival from now on.

Yeah um no…..this guy is devil’s spawn. Lock him up

Put that fake ass newspaper apology out. Was fuckin up his money, so yeah he gotta act sane. Ye is a whole mess. And people spending concert dollars on him are messy too

There are consequences for actions. Yes even words.

I find it so unbearably stupid that when someone posts a news article about something unfortunate, the users downvote the post to hell because they dislike the news, not the post. It makes zero sense.

What about his future statements? Should they issue forgiveness in advance?

> Melvin Benn, who serves as managing director at Festival Republic, the U.K. promoter behind Wireless, issued a statement to Variety on Monday defending Ye based on his own experiences dealing with people who suffer from mental health issues. “I have witnessed many episodes of despicable behaviour that I have had to forgive and move on from,” he wrote. “If I wasn’t before, I have become a person of forgiveness and hope in all aspects of my life, including work.” > He called Ye’s previous declarations about Jews and Hitler “abhorrent,” but that they are “not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature” but only to perform songs that are “enjoyed by millions.” “Forgiveness and giving people a second chance are becoming a lost virtue in this ever-increasing divisive world,” he stated, “and I would ask people to reflect on their instant comments of disgust at the likelihood of him performing (as was mine) and offer some forgiveness and hope to him as I have decided to do.”