Kanye West has responded to an open letter from his late mother’s surgeon, urging him to cease and desist from using his face on his next album cover.
Last week, the rapper announced plans to use a photo of surgeon Jan Adams as the artwork for his next album, revealing he was ready to “forgive and stop hating”.
Jan performed Donda West’s final surgery in 2007, when she experienced complications and died. He was later cleared of any wrongdoing, with a coroner ruling Donda died from heart disease.
Upon hearing of Kanye’s album plans, Jan published an open letter to Kanye asking him not to use his photo in combination with any promotional material.
He wrote: “I ask that you cease and desist using my photo or any image of me to promote your album or any of your work. I just think if in fact this conversion to love is genuine on your part... then it’s inappropriate to drag the negativity of the past with it.
“Don’t put my picture out there and claim you are about love. Love deals with the truth.”
In response, Kanye thanked Jan for the connection, insisting he was ready to start “healing”.
Posting the open letter in full on Twitter, he wrote: “Open letter from Jan Adams. This is amazing. Thank you so much for this connection brother. I can’t wait to sit with you and start healing.”
Kanye’s tweets about his mother’s surgeon came after he provoked a huge backlash last week after voicing his support of US President Donald Trump.
The controversial Twitter storm sparked a mass unfollowing among many of his celebrity friends.
He later released new track ‘Ye Vs. The People’, in which he and T.I. discuss the ramifications of Kanye’s public declaration of support for Trump.