{"id":321147,"date":"2026-06-26T21:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/321147\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T21:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:35:09","slug":"kanye-west-ye-tampa-concerts-to-go-on-despite-petition-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/321147\/","title":{"rendered":"Kanye West Ye Tampa Concerts to Go on Despite Petition, Protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAfter the failure of a petition launched by Sen. Rick Scott<\/a> to bar resurgent rap superstar Kanye \u201cYe\u201d West<\/a> from performing on Friday and Sunday at a publicly funded Tampa arena over the rapper\u2019s past antisemitic statements and songs, two protest vehicles will circle the venue as fans of the controversial rapper file into his show.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn June 3, Scott launched a Change.org petition<\/a> demanding that the Tampa Sports Authority cancel West\u2019s late June concerts at the city\u2019s Raymond James Stadium. Scott cited West\u2019s controversial antisemitic remarks and other actions in the letter he wrote to the stadium\u2019s governing body. He wrote that Florida\u2019s politicians should do everything in their power to ensure that public money and resources not be used for West\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cKanye West<\/a> is an admitted and prolific antisemite who has slandered Jews, praised Adolf Hitler, called himself a Nazi and sold swastika merchandise on his website \u2014 among his numerous other antisemitic remarks and actions. Florida \u2014 and especially the Tampa Bay area \u2014 has a large Jewish population,\u201d Scott said. \u201cForcing them to support these concerts through their tax dollars is a complete slap in the face to the Jews in Florida and across the country and world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBeginning in 2022, antisemitic and misogynistic language from the rapper and star producer has burst into public view several times, most notably on his X feed, where last year he wrote missives like, \u201cI LOVE HITLER NOW WHAT BITCHES,\u201d \u201cIM A NAZI\u201d and \u201cHitler was sooooo fresh.\u201d He also began selling t-shirts emblazoned with swastikas on the front via his company\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen, in January, West placed a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal<\/a> retracting a number of statements he made on social media over the past several years. In the mea culpa, the mercurial rap mogul attributed his past behavior to a brain injury, while declaring, \u201cI love Jewish people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMany were skeptical of this about-face; most said they are happy to see that he appears to be on the right path. But not everyone \u2014 and as his comeback record, Bully, was released with a smattering of concert dates planned, the rapper learned that the U.K. was denying him an entry visa and three nights headlining the massive Wireless Festival had to be scrapped. A planned gig at an arena in Poland was the next domino to fall for the rapper.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKanye West performs on his Bully tour in Los Angeles at SoFi Stadium on April 1.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKadeem Jackson<\/p>\n

\n\tScott\u2019s petition gained over 11,000 signatures in three weeks and he was joined by Senator Ashley Moody, chair of the Department of Justice\u2019s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism; Holocaust survivor Toni Rinde; Jewish community leaders; and several national and state officials in his denouncement and plea to the stadium\u2019s top officials. But no number of citizens the senator found to agree with his cause would be enough to shut down West\u2019s shows \u2014 or most anyone\u2019s, for that matter, because the Tampa Sports Authority issued a statement in response to Scott\u2019s pleas that it cannot shut a show down because the venue\u2019s management operates the venue according to free speech laws.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe recognize the concerns and viewpoints being expressed about the upcoming events at Raymond James Stadium,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cAs a public agency, we follow the principles of free speech in operating our venue, although we do not condone remarks or actions from any artists that are offensive and divisive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLocal news station Bay News 9<\/a> reported that a legal expert who reviewed the agreement between the rapper and the stadium said that the provisions protect the concerts from cancellation because of any past statements. The rapper apparently requested this unusual inclusion in the contract, and only major situations could lead to cancellation, for example, if the federal government were to raise the national terrorism threat assessment to Level 5, or if there were a large public health threat.<\/p>\n

\n\tScott and the supporters of his anti-West agenda seem to have taken the freedom of speech message to heart, because on Friday at 4 p.m. local time, mobile billboards will circle Raymond James Stadium in protest of West\u2019s first of two shows scheduled for this weekend. The trucks will be pointing people to Scott\u2019s Change.org petition demanding that taxpayer-funded venues refuse to book Ye<\/a> because of his public antisemitic rhetoric.<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing the failure of the petition, the Florida Holocaust Museum will be offering free admission from Friday through Sunday while West is in town to perform.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Hollywood Reporter has reached out to a representative for West and to Sen. Scott\u2019s office for comment but did not immediately hear back on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the failure of a petition launched by Sen. Rick Scott to bar resurgent rap superstar Kanye \u201cYe\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[63134,99,3856,135,137,136,121361],"class_list":["post-321147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-kanye-west","tag-politics","tag-rick-scott","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-ye"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}