Separating art from artists has been a very hot discussion in recent years, and none bigger than recent  controversy surrounding Ye, formally known as Kanye West. 

  Most people are aware of the inappropriate, anti-Semitic and harmful statements Ye has said on various platforms over the past few months, and I want to start this off by saying that what he said was completely unacceptable and disappointing. 

  I’m not here to argue if Ye is right or wrong. I’m here to argue that streaming services such as Apple Music, Spotify and others should not take any of his music down as a result of his comments. 

  You may be wondering why I’m so hell-bent on protecting this guy who has clearly crossed the line. It’s not him I’m protecting; it’s fans like myself. Ye is a multimillionaire who never has to work another day in his life if he doesn’t want to. Taking his music off these platforms won’t hurt him, it’ll hurt us. 

  Fans should not pay the price by not getting to listen to his music when it was he who was in the wrong. It’s one thing for companies such as Adidas to cut ties with him, but to deprive fans of the right to listen to the music they enjoy is simply not helping anyone. 

  The issue goes beyond streaming platforms. In the days following Ye’s comments, Creighton University announced that they will not be playing any of his music at any athletic events moving forward. 

  A question I’ll pose to them is, are you playing any Chris Brown songs? R Kelly? DaBaby? I could go on forever, but the point is where is the line drawn? Plenty of artists have done terrible things in the past, yet their music is acceptable to be played and it remains on platforms.

  If we took away every artist’s discography when they did something controversial or wrong, we’d be left with virtually nothing to listen to. 

  Artists are people just like the rest of us. None of them are perfect, and nearly all of them will make mistakes. While Ye’s mistakes might be more vulgar than other artists, there’s no reason to suddenly pretend his 11 albums, which have been listened to countless amounts of times, are harmful. 

  Accountability for his actions is needed; however, the punishment should come down on Ye himself, not his millions of fans worldwide who enjoy his art. 

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