What Happened To “The Real” Kanye West? Here’s Why People Think The Rapper Was Cloned

In 2005 and 2015, Time named Kanye West one of the 100 most influential people in the world. The rapper has won 24 Grammy Awards, and six of his albums landed in Rolling Stone's 2020 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, naming him one of the "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time." 

Besides music, Kanye also became a successful designer, collaborating with some of the biggest brands, including Nike, Louis Vuitton, Gap, and AP.C., and most notably, his Yeezy collab with Adidas. In the summer of 2023, however, Adidas announced they were cutting ties with Ye and would stop producing and selling Yeezys after his insensitive remarks.

Kanye shares four children with Kim Kardashian, who he married in 2014 but divorced last year. He reportedly tied the knot with Bianca Censori in early 2023. 

But the controversial Ye is apparently not what he seems, according to people. Some TikTokers believe the rapper has been cloned following his outbursts and rants on social media. 

What Happened to Kanye and Balenciaga?

Morgan (@itsmorganfr), a popular TikToker who has amassed over 400,000 followers on the platform, made a hit video about the rapper. She believes there were "way too many red flags" with his situation. "And if you don't believe in cloning, wake up," Morgan says. "It's 2023. We cloned Dolly the sheep back in 1996. You really think we just found out how to do that and then stopped?" 

Remember the Balenciaga scandal? Of course, you do. After the disturbing brand photographed children in inappropriate settings for their campaign, a lot of things came to light. Like how Demna Gvasalia, the creative director of Balenciaga, allegedly admitted to watching child sexual abuse content growing up. Or how his friend was purportedly caught trying to sext minors. His other pal, stylist Lotta Volkova, uploaded creepy imagery of kids and teens. The CEO of the brand’s parent company, Kering, also owned Christie's auction house. One of the art pieces that was sold on their website was a male toddler with an erect penis as a face. Through Balenciaga, we learned that something was wrong with the fashion industry.

I don't remember the backlash from celebrities when this happened, but Ye was one of the few who came forward to share his thoughts on the matter. The "Stronger" rapper said that the rich and famous were puppets. “This just shows you all celebrities are controlled. You don’t see no celebrities talking about the Balenciaga situation,” he told TMZ. 

In another video, Ye purportedly claims that Balenciaga's "pedophile" campaign was planned and that they were trying to set him up. For context, he walked for Balenciaga SS23 months prior to the brand's massive scandal. 

"It feels like they put me in the front of the show and swapped him out so that I could be the face at the time when the photos hit," Ye speculated.

He has claimed in the past that loved ones close to celebrities were sacrificed "to control" and "traumatize" them. 

Last year, Ye said that if anything ever happened to him from speaking out, it was because he was silenced. "If I ever went anywhere, we'd know why. You understand what I'm saying?” he said. Morgan on TikTok thinks the rapper "flew a little bit too close to the sun” and recalls his situation with celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak.

Who Is Harley Pasternak? 

Shortly before Balenciaga released their disturbing ad photos, Ye took to Twitter to release text messages between him and an individual who sounded like a "handler." The musician revealed he was"drugged" out of his mind to make him a "manageable, well-behaved" celebrity. The person he was speaking to in the messages was alleged to be Harley Pasternak, a popular celebrity trainer in Hollywood. 

In the messages, the trainer offers two options to Kanye: a “loving” and open conversation where he doesn’t use swear words, or institutionalization with medication that sends the rapper back to “Zombieland.” What’s interesting is that Harley used to be a drug researcher in the Canadian military, and he even admitted to having the privilege of researching obscure drugs that normal people didn't have.

There are more details about the two I won’t mention in this article, but you can read our pieces on Ye and Harley to find out more about their background and relationship and the strange details surrounding them.  

Kanye Goes Missing 

Shortly after the Balenciaga scandal, Ye’s manager reported he was “missing.” He then reemerged weeks later with his new flame, Bianca Censori. To Morgan and thousands of people, the Kanye that returned to the public looks…different. "He just doesn't look like the old Kanye to me," Morgan said. "I mean, it does look like Kanye, but something is off. It's as if the Great Value Kanye and the old Kanye was the name brand."

Even some of the rapper’s fans noticed that the new Ye doesn’t have the same tattoos as the “real” Kanye. Even if he did get them removed, the scars would be visible. The TikToker also noted how Google lists Ye’s height as 5’8”, the same height as Bianca. Yet, in every image of the rapper and his new wife, Ye looks at least “four inches” taller than her. Orlando Brown, former Disney star, has even talked about this odd height difference in one of his interviews.

"If you guys ever realize, like, how there's a taller Kanye and a smaller Kanye," the That's So Raven star said, "That's what they're fighting for. Who's gonna be Kanye. They're fighting for who's gonna be Kanye."

The new Ye has also stayed off social media. In the past, the “Heartless” rapper always went on Instagram and Twitter to speak his mind and refused to be silent. So why is he hush-hush now? Earlier this year, Ye was also spotted shopping at Balenciaga, which seemed out of character for him. 

What's even stranger is how Ye has freestyled in the past about being cloned. "Just watch how they cloned me, but he can't hold me because God told me that life has shown me that God is the only," he sang. 

"I don't think it's too far-fetched to say that the Kanye that we have seen in the news today is not the Kanye that we previously sometimes loved," Morgan added. A lot of people agree with Morgan – the new Ye is not the same as the old one. Some of them pointed out that cloning likely didn’t happen but that the new Ye was just a hired look-alike. Just take a look at the comments below. 

Is it cloning, a rebranded doppelgänger, or just aging and stress? We may never know, but one thing's for sure; Ye's transformation (and his whole thing with the trainer) has left us all scratching our heads.

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