This past weekend, Kanye West celebrated his 46th birthday, but the attention wasn’t drawn to the impressive guest list.
Instead, food being served from a naked woman’s body at Yeezy’s birthday party, which was hosted on Saturday night (June 10) in what appeared to be an empty warehouse, grabbed headlines.
A naked female model is shown lying still on a table at the unconventional party, with multiple food platters sitting on top of her body, including her breasts, crotch, and knees.
A chef was seated next to the woman, and as Kanye’s music, including the Donda song “Come to Life,” blasted from the speakers, he could be seen carefully arranging parts of sushi on the plates for people to dine on.
While the sight may have seemed weird to some fans, the tradition, known as “Nyotaimori,” in Japan has roots that go back hundreds of years. It has seen opposition from feminist activists in more recent years.
Even Kanye’s embrace of the custom wasn’t without controversy, as some detractors noted that his daughter North West, 9, was present at the party with explicit nudity.
On Twitter, someone said, “So kanye flipped when kim let north do a dance on tiktok but he’s okay with having her come to his birthday where they’re serving sushi off a naked woman?”
Other attendees were Kanye’s wife Bianca Censori, fellow musicians Freddie Gibbs, Ty Dolla $ign, and Chloe Bailey, as well as GLC and John Monopoly, two longtime Ye allies.
North practiced her camera skills at the party despite her father’s judgment being called into question. She was observed shooting Ye as he animatedly murmured along to “Off the Grid.”
In terms of legislation, Kanye West’s birthday celebrations occurred at a challenging time for the rap mogul as he has recently been the target of many lawsuits.
Gap filed a $2 million lawsuit against the resident of Chicago this month for allegedly violating the terms of a rental agreement for a building in Los Angeles that he allegedly made prohibited renovations to during their relationship, which ended in September.
The photographer whose phone Yeezy snatched and threw during a heated argument earlier this year sued him for assault and battery the following week.
Days later, another former instructor from Kanye’s Donda Academy filed a lawsuit, alleging that her dismissal was motivated by retaliation for raising issues regarding the “illegal and disturbing code violations and conduct at the school.”
Despite the antisemitism scandal that ended their cooperation, the Yeezy sneakers nevertheless sold out, and Mr. West reportedly received $25 million after adidas reversed course on their intention to sell leftover stock.