Photos by Marc Piasecki/GC Images and Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images
Bobby Brown is speaking out against Kanye West after the rapper licensed a photo of Whitney Houston‘s drug-laced vanity to be used as the cover art of Pusha T‘s album, Daytona (Pusha is signed to Ye’s label G.O.O.D Music and is also the executive producer of the project).
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjLLEZfg4eJ/?hl=en&taken-by=kingpush
The photo which fans have called disrespectful has also sparked outrage from Houston’s family and friends, including her ex-husband.
Brown told Rolling Stone this week,“Why would he post that on his album cover? That’s really disgusting that he would do that. That’s in really bad taste. Something should happen to Kanye. He’s already crazy. I knew that when I first met him. Now he’s pushing the bar a little bit. He needs somebody to slap him up or something. And I’m just the person to do it.”
Photo by Lee Celano/WireImage
So how did Kanye get the photo? According to PEOPLE, “In 2006, the National Enquirer featured the photo showing Houston’s bathroom filled with drug-covered spoons and drug paraphernalia on its cover, which had been taken secretly by a family member in 2006 as the late singer struggled with drug addiction. West paid $85,000 to license the photo but it is not clear who he paid to use the image.”
While some of Houston’s family may be upset, Whitney’s nephew Gary Michael feels differently. In a statement to Good Morning America, he defended the rapper’s use of the photo. “Not to be divisive, but I’m of a different mindset when it comes to situations like this. People will automatically look to people like Pusha T and Kanye West and try to place blame or say they have ill or malicious intent to gain publicity. But I get it. I get the correlation (sans my aunt but the photo itself). Bottom line — they are artists and in this day and age, if they can afford to pay someone for usage of that photograph in order to convey a visual message to accompany their musicianship…then so be it.”
TELL US: Fair or foul?
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