Untangling Kanye West’s “Cousins” Lyrics After Incestuous Relationship Revelation

Content warning: This story discusses sexual contact of minors. 

Kanye West is diving deeper into his past. 

After alleging that he had a sexual relationship with a cousin as a kid, the “Gold Digger” rapper explored the traumatic experience further on his new song, “Cousins,” which was released on April 21. 

“Hanging with my cousin, reading dirty magazines,” he raps in the track’s opening lines. “We seen some n—as kissin’, we ain’t know what that s–t mean/ Then we start re-enacting everything that we had seen.”

And the verse goes on to say that the sexual nature of Kanye’s relationship with his family member evolved from there, ending with the repeated line, “I gave my cousin head.”

As for why the Grammy winner is only sharing his side of the story now? Kanye explained in the song—which also features Dave Blunts and Playboi Carti—that he made his cousin vow not to tell anyone and was told by others to “take it to my grave.”

“I don’t think they understand,” the 47-year-old rapped in the second verse, “that I’m not attracted to a man (They thought I was gay).”