Whitney Houston’s Cousin Slams Kanye Over Using Photo Of Her Bathroom For Album Cover
May 26, 2018
Whitney Houston’s Cousin Slams Kanye Over Using Photo Of Her Bathroom For Album Cover
Yikes! Whitney Houston’s cousin dissed Kanye West for using a photo of the late singer’s drug-covered bathroom for album artwork.
Kanye West, 40, has found himself in hot water yet again. This time around, Whitney Houston‘s cousin Damon Elliot criticized him for using a photo of the late singer’s drug-covered bathroom as the album artwork for Pusha T‘s newest release DAYTONA, which he produced. In an interview with People, Elliot opened up about the rapper’s decision to drop $85,000 on an image depicting Houston’s bathroom filled with drug-covered spoons and drug paraphernalia and finding out abut it through a phone call from his daughter.
“[She was] frantic. She sent me this picture from the album cover and I immediately got sick to my stomach because it took me right back to six years ago,” Elliot said about finding out about the cover. “I was actually in shock because I’m in the music business,” he continued, adding that he even worked with Kanye on a Keyshia Cole song.
“I’ve watched the train wreck happening, but I didn’t think he’d go this far in invading someone’s family privacy,” he added, referencing the “Famous” singer’s recent social media debacles. “To do something for a publicity stunt to sell records, it’s absolutely disgusting… It hurt my family and my daughter. It’s petty. It’s tacky.”
album 1 PUSHA T DAYTONA dropping 2mrw pic.twitter.com/M1UPvax5fa
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) May 24, 2018
Elliot also mentioned being confused as to why Kanye would do this since Houston “never did anything to him.” The husband of Kim Kardashian also allegedly didn’t reach out to Elliot before licensing the photo or after the news broke. “I just want him to tell me why he did it,” he said. “What is the creative side of this? What’s the point? It shows no creativity.”
Houston’s cousin said he wants Kanye to apologize to him, and also promise to change the cover art to something else. He’s also prepared for if or when the Yeezy designer gives him a call. “What were you thinking? Did you think this through? And if you did, why did you do this?” Elliot said about what he wants to tell Kanye. “Because you’re hurting people. It knocked the wind out of me last night. When someone passes, you try to mourn and move on and remember the good times… Why are you going to pay $85,000 to bring something to the forefront?”
I finally got my album art… #DAYTONA 5/25
A post shared by Pusha T (@kingpush) on
While appearing on The Angie Martinez Show on May 23 – two days before his album release – Pusha T, 41, revealed that the “Stronger” hitmaker was the one to make the last-minute changes to the album art. “One a.m., my phone rings. No caller ID. [He says,] ‘Hey, yeah, I think we should change the artwork. And I like this other artwork. And this other artwork is 85 grand,’” he explained, adding that the album was already fine as is and he didn’t want to drop that kind of cash on new artwork. Kanye then allegedly told him: “‘No, this is what people need to see to go along with this music. Imma pay for that.'” It’s unclear whether Kanye paid the National Enquirer, which first published the photo in 2006, or Houston’s sister-in-law Tina Brown for the image.
Houston was found dead in a bathtub in 2012 at The Beverly Hilton hotel. Her death was ruled an accidental drowning, with heart disease and cocaine use also to blame. Her Aug. 2012 autopsy found that she had marijuana, Xanax, Benadryl, and other medication in her system at the time of her passing.