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Kanye West hires Hollywood Unlocked’s Jason Lee after false Queen death story

Lee apologised after his blog published an untrue report that the royal had died last month

Ellie Harrison
Saturday 12 March 2022 04:33 EST
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Kanye West at his Donda 2 listening event in Miami

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Kanye West has hired Jason Lee, the founder-CEO of the blog Hollywood Unlocked and the man who published a false report about the Queen dying, as his head of media and partnerships.

The musician – who legally changed his name to Ye – met Lee while doing a video interview for Hollywood Unlocked in February.

“I think after the interview on Hollywood Unlocked, it was clear that we had an aligned vision for levelling the playing field in media,” Lee told Variety.

“Ye voiced a vision for a company he was building, and that media was an arm of that, and he felt I could be an asset.”

Speaking about the false report on the Queen’s death, which was published on his website in February, Lee told the publication: “I’ve always understood how the press works, because I’m a part of that machine.

“But unlike most outlets when they get it wrong, I took ownership, apologised and moved on regardless of whether the world hasn’t.”

He added: “But one thing [West and I] have in common is the pleasure of independence and ownership.

Kanye West
Kanye West (AFP via Getty Images)

“I also share the confidence that we will be [part of an] imperfect world that expects people to always be perfect.”

Lee said he wants to “offer” the Hollywood Unlocked platform to West “to clear the air when he feels he wants to”.

West has been going through a very public separation from his estranged wife Kim Kardashian.

Since Kardashian filed to divorce West, the rapper has made multiple public appeals to the reality star to get back together.

After Kardashian described his behaviour as “scary”, West apologised for some of his social media posts, saying he would “take accountability”.

He has since posted about Kardashian’s new relationship with comedian Pete Davidson multiple times and released two music videos for his track “Eazy” that have shown characters representing Davidson meeting a violent end.

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