Album rollout and singles On March 6, West stated that his upcoming music would feature an "antisemitic sound". On March 16, he posted images of a Nazi swastika and the
sig runes of the
Schutzstaffel (SS), claiming them to be his "new album cover" and "new
Sunday Service logo", respectively. West first teased the song "
WW3" on March 15 on his
Twitter account. Prior to its release, Blunts and streamer
Adin Ross had reacted to the song; the latter initially expressed negative feelings, West released "WW3" as a single on March 26. On March 30, DJ Akademiks held an interview in which West wore a black
Ku Klux Klan-inspired outfit and made further controversial remarks, including stating that he regrets having children with his ex-wife
Kim Kardashian. He made negative remarks about various other celebrities, including
Jay-Z,
Beyoncé,
Playboi Carti,
Kendrick Lamar,
Ty Dolla Sign, and the late
Virgil Abloh. The following day, West released the music video to "WW3" on
Twitter. The video contains a repurposed scene from the American
television miniseries Roots alongside graphic sexual imagery featuring
interracial sex and footage of a KKK gathering. On April 2, DJ Akademiks announced that the album, initially titled
WW3, would be released the next day, and shared the track listing. Akademiks also previewed the track "Bianca"; the lyrics of the track concern West's separation from his wife
Bianca Censori, pleading with her to "come back". When the album failed to drop on April 3, West revealed the album cover, which depicts a male and female Klan member wearing white and red KKK-inspired outfits, respectively, posing in front of a stack of hay bales. The album cover is an edited version of the 2015 photo
The wedding of two members of the KKK in a barn in rural America by
Peter van Agtmael, who claimed that West's use of the photograph was unauthorized. that West sampled in the song "Heil Hitler"|The speech by
Adolf Hitler that West sampled in "Heil Hitler" On April 21, West announced that he was changing the title of the album to
Cuck (in popular culture, short for
cuckold), which he said represented "[his] whole style". He released the music video for the second single called "
Cousins" the same day in a tweet, revealing the song is based on his cousin who's imprisoned for murdering a pregnant woman a few years after West told him they wouldn't "look at dirty magazines together" anymore. The track contains lyrics discussing West's experience having an
incestuous relationship with a male cousin as a child and his recreational use of
nitrous oxide. On May 7, West stated on Twitter that he was uploading the third single called "
Heil Hitler". On May 8, he released the music video for the single, featuring men draped in animal skins singing the chorus, with the outro sampling a speech by
Adolf Hitler. West subsequently released the song on
SoundCloud and Scrybe. West then stated on May 9 that the song was "banned by all digital streaming platforms". An instrumental version titled "The Heil Symphony" was uploaded in its place on May 14.
Retractions and alterations On May 20, "WW3" was removed from all streaming services, followed by West tweeting that he was "done with antisemitism" following a
FaceTime call with his children on May 22. He asked God to "forgive [him] for the pain I've caused" and said that he forgave those who caused him pain. He later re-uploaded the song, with new black cover art and censoring of the words "Nazi", "
Swastikas", "
Hitler", "
Antisemitic" and "
Mein Kampf". "The Heil Symphony" was also taken down, later re-uploaded with black cover art and the updated name "Hit Symphony". On May 31, a song titled "Hallelujah" was uploaded to
YouTube before being added to streaming services. The song itself, which is an edited version of "
Heil Hitler", censored the phrase "Heil Hitler" and replaced it with "Hallelujah", with "all my niggas Nazis" being changed to "all my niggas got me". The only other censored word is "Nazi" during the line "So I became a Nazi yeah, bitch I'm the villain". On June 22, West posted to
X that he was thinking about changing the album's name from "CUKKK" to "IN A PERFECT WORLD". He later posted "IN A PERFECT WORLD", implying that it was the new title for the album. Blunts also updated the caption of an image of him and West on Instagram, changing it from "CUCKS" to "IN A PERFECT WORLD" to reflect the name change. In an interview with
VladTV, Blunts claimed that West had moved on from antisemitic rhetoric, stating that, "he's not on that anymore, he's doing better now." The song "Diddy Free", originally featured on
Cuck, was reworked and released on
Never Stop on June 27, an
extended play (EP) by
Christian "King" Combs, which was executively produced by West. West would later play "Gas Chambers", also known as "
All the Love", in a rehearsal a day prior to his concert in
Shanghai on July 11, but he did not play the song during the concert. The album tracks "WW3" and "Hallelujah" were played at the concert on July 12 without West's approval or knowledge according to a post made by his team on
Xiaohongshu, along with songs from his upcoming album
Bully and his song with
YoungBoy Never Broke Again, "
Alive" (2025). Since then, on November 17, "WW3," "Cousins", and "Heil Hitler", along with their alternate versions "Hallelujah" and "Hit Symphony", were removed from all streaming services following his apology to Rabbi
Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto. In January 2026, West published an
open letter in
The Wall Street Journal in which he
apologized for his antisemitic remarks and behavior, stating his outbursts stemmed from
manic episodes in which he "gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika", as he refused to accept his bipolar disorder diagnosis. West said he was "deeply mortified by [his] actions" and pledged to take "accountability, treatment, and meaningful change". The song "Gas Chambers" was repurposed for
Bully under its alternate title "All the Love", appearing in the tracklist for the album. West would later play "All the Love" during his concert in Mexico on January 30th and January 31st. ==Reception==