Rockabilia Taking Heat For Kanye + Burzum Shirt

A Kanye West/Burzum T-shirt available to purchase from the online rock and metal merchandise retailer Rockabilia has drawn fire from several commenters in response to both the garment itself and Rockabilia’s post about the shirt, which encourages would-be wearers to embrace the shirt’s controversial subtext and endorses Kanye for president.

The shirt, an authorized Burzum item made in long and short sleeves, includes the stylized Burzum wordmark above a photo of Kanye wearing a Burzum shirt, the meta nature of the reference couching itself as a meme. Kanye wore the Burzum shirt in a photo alongside fellow hip-hop artist JPEGMAFIA last month.

At the time, the embattled rapper’s garment choice was especially controversial after Kanye had just apologized to the Jewish community in December following a string of blatant antisemitic activity, the inflammatory behavior the latest turn in his fall from grace.

READ MORE: Varg Vikernes Comments on Kanye West Wearing a Burzum Shirt

Burzum is also controversial because their bandleader, Varg Vikernes, is a purported former neo-Nazi supporter with a history of violence and hatred. In 1994, he was convicted of murder and arson, serving 15 years in prison. He later reportedly disavowed Nazism but still appears to hold xenophobic or racist views, according to Metal Injection.

Rockabilia is one of the largest online merch retailers, stocking merchandise from thousands of rock and metal bands, as Decibel reported.

Rockabilia Kanye x Burzum Shirt Post

Rockabilia’s original post about the Kanye/Burzum shirt reads, “We didn’t. Actually, jk [just kidding]…we did. Now available to order on Rockabilia.com, so you can be the most hated kid at the next Metal show you attend. Also, Ye For President 2024!”

The response on X (formerly Twitter) was largely negative.

“This is trash,” one commenter remarked. “Corny,” another added. “It’s not too late to delete this, you fucking idiots,” someone said. “Genuinely the worst shirt I’ve ever seen in my life,” yet another added. “This sucks so much,” another commenter said.

READ MORE: Does Racism Exist in Rock? – A Discussion With William DuVall, Jason Aalon Butler + Nova Twins

The repulsed responses weren’t over. “Someone’s getting fired,” one person remarked.  “Not funny, didn’t laugh,” someone else said.

But not all responded badly. A couple of commenters reacted positively to the T-shirt in light of it as meme, at least one joking that the only issue was that Rockabilia wasn’t quick enough to release it. The retailer replied that they only sell the shirt, not manufacture it.

“Your only crime is being something like 4 weeks too late,” one responder wrote, adding a laughing emoji.

“To be fair, we didn’t come up with the idea,” Rockabilia wrote. “Nor do we manufacture it. It comes from Burzum’s record label/merch co., who sells wholesale to us.”

There are also signs about Rockabilia’s sentiments about the shirt that appear to conflict with the dismissive, laugh-it-off messaging that also suggested presidential candidacy for an openly antisemitic person.

On the retailer’s Instagram post about the shirt, someone commented, “This is actually really uncool.” Using the hundred points emoji, the official Rockabilia account responded, “Agreed 100%.”

One person exclaimed they’ve “never supported a company as much as imma [sic] support you guys now.” Rockabilia replied, “Not sure if that should be taken as a compliment.”

Another points out that Rockabilia has an established history of stocking other Burzum products on their webstore. The retailer shot back, “Burzum is literally a cold blooded murderer who killed his own bandmate, and yet he really only got ‘canceled’ in the last several years because of comments he made (which are of course awful and batshit crazy). The internet is truly bizarre.”

So, while Rockabilia is stocking, selling and promoting this Kanye West/Burzum shirt, other comments they’ve made communicate, at the least, a marginal level of discomfort with this specific product.