If someone offered you $3 million to sing some songs, would you turn it down?
Kanye West certainly did not say no when he reportedly earned that much over the weekend for his performance for Kazakhstan’s autocratic leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and now he is being raked over the coals for it.
“Kazakhstan is a human rights wasteland,” Human Rights Foundation President Thor Halvorssen said in a statement Tuesday. “The regime crushes freedom of speech and association; someone like Kanye, who makes a living expressing his views, would find himself in a prison under Nazarbayev’s rule. This particular dictator’s ruthless behavior includes kidnapping the families of dissidents to his rule and abusing judicial systems across the world in persecuting his opponents.”
Nazarbayev reportedly personally invited the rapper to perform. Back in 2011, Sting allegedly turned down an offer to perform in the country because of Nazarbayev’s oppressive regime.
Last month, Jennifer Lopez was similarly ridiculed for performing for the dictator of Turkmenistan for a cool $10 million.
