A Jewish businessman ended his association with Kanye West after the rapper allegedly subjected him to antisemitic abuse.

Alex Klein, who worked with West around the time of his 2021 album Donda, told the BBC he was racially abused while working for the troubled rapper.

He said: “He [Kanye] was saying ‘I feel like I wanna smack you’ and ‘you’re exactly like the other Jews’ – almost relishing and revelling in how offensive he could be, using these phrases hoping to hurt me.”

“I asked him: ‘do you really think Jews are working together to hold you back?’ and he said ‘yes, yes I do.”

Klein, who is from London, worked with West from 2012 on a range of projects including the Stem player, a Bluetooth device allowing users to separate parts of songs for remixing.

In January 2023, Kano Computing - Klein's company which he started with fellow entrepreneur Yonatan Raz-Fridman, distanced itself from Kanye West after the rapper made a series of antisemitic remarks including praising Hitler on Alex Jones's InfoWars show alongside antisemite Nick Fuentes.

West was dropped by most of his major business partners last year, including Adidas, Balenciaga and talent agency CAA.

The rapper, who has claimed he is running for the US presidency, received a grand total of zero donations to his presidential campaign in the last quarter of 2022.