Ozzy Osbourne disavows “antisemite” Kanye West’s use of a “War Pigs” sample

Left: Ozzy Osbourne (Photo: Mauricio Santana/Getty Images), Right: Kanye West (Photo: Brad Barket/Getty Images for Fast Company)

Ozzy Osbourne has taken fire at Kanye West on social media today, condemning the rapper as an “antisemite” who has “caused untold heartache to many.” (Take it as read that we’re translating these accusations from Osbourne’s typical all-caps social media presentation.) More specifically, Osbourne is calling out West for using a sample of a live recording of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” during an album listening party for his upcoming release Vultures in Chicago last night.

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“I want no association with this man!” Osbourne wrote on Twitter, noting that he’d previously been approached by West’s people about including a non-vocal sample of a 1983 performance of “War Pigs” on his upcoming album, but promptly shot him down. Which doesn’t appear to have stopped West from using the song in the semi-official form an album listening party, which has been a standard way for him to roll out versions of his endlessly tinkered-with songs for years now. (Even as he’s claimed that people are blocking him from booking arena gigs due to his public comments, which doesn’t appear to have… stopped him from booking a bunch of arenas for these sold-out parties.)

As people with eyes and ears and brains living in 2024, you’re almost certainly well aware that West has spent the last decade or so systematically demolishing his reputation, with the same vigor with which he once so vigorously pursued superstardom—most notably through his often contradictory, endlessly inflammatory embrace of antisemitism, followed by “apologies” for saying antisemitic shit, followed by saying some more antisemitic shit. It’s actually managed to be even more exhausting than his whole “I’m putting the album out, wait, no I’m not” schtick, which is also in effect on Vultures, which was supposed to come out today.

Anyway: It’ll be interesting to see if West tries to get away with including the “War Pigs” sample on the actual album; it’s very much of a piece with his entire lifestyle/strategy to try to get away with something like this in a less official form, before apologetically scrubbing the offending sample from the official release.