Kanye West has ignited a wave of disbelief after posting a graphic tweet about sexual experiences with a male cousin in his youth and sharing lyrics from a new track titled “Cousins.” The post, shared Monday morning (April 21), included deeply personal details alongside a snippet of the song.
“This song is called COUSINS about my cousin that’s locked in jail for life for killing a pregnant lady a few years after I told him we wouldn’t ‘look at dirty magazines together’ anymore,” West wrote. “Perhaps in my self centered mess I felt it was my fault that I showed him those dirty magazines when he was 6 and then we acted out what we saw.’
“My dad had playboy magazines but the magazines I found in the top of my moms closet were different. My name is Ye and I sucked my cousins dick till I was 14. Tweet sent.”
The tweet quickly went viral, with many users expressing confusion, concern and disbelief. Some interpreted the post as West confronting childhood trauma, while others questioned the motive behind the revelation.
The song “Cousins,” which West previewed in the same tweet, includes explicit lyrics that mirror the content of his post:
“Hanging with my cousin reading dirty magazines/We seen some n##### kiss and we ain’t know what that s### mean/Then we start reenacting everything that we had seen/That’s when I gave my cousin head.”
West shared his concern that “these n##### ’bout to judge me now,” adding, “Told my cousin not to tell nobody (Please, no, don’t tell nobody).”
West also confirmed, “I’m not attracted to a man.”
Kanye West – Cousins
The cousin referenced in the song remains unnamed but is serving a double life sentence for the murder of a pregnant woman at age 17.
The case was featured in Kim Kardashian’s 2020 documentary, The Justice Project.