An Australian comedian has revealed how he squatted in Kanye West’s mansion for an entire week without anyone realising.
In early 2023, Jewish documentarian, satirist and author John Safran spent seven days in the rapper’s home in Calabasas, California, after he travelled from Melbourne to LA to investigate a slew of anti-Semitic remarks made by the rapper.
He revealed on HIT FM’s Carrie and Tommy radio show how he managed to get into the property – an abandoned 320-acre property in Calabasas which was previously headquarters for West’s famous ‘Sunday Service’.
John explained how one night he realised he needed to stay in the property to write a book about the experience, which he later titled Squat.
‘I think part of it was he (Kanye) stopped paying his security people and neighbours told me they hadn’t seen him there for months and months,’ John explained.
‘I needed a writer’s retreat and he had come out as supportive of Hitler at the time so I went to LA and New York catching up with people in his circles who had views on the hand.’
Safran said getting into the property was easier than it first seemed.
‘There is a big gate and behind it is a forest. You keep on walking and the fence ends and the bushes start so you just slide through that and go down this bank and there is a stream,’ he explained.
‘You go through the forest behind and then you reach the back of the mansion. I went to wiggle the sliding glass door and it was open.’
An Australian comedian has revealed how he squatted in Kanye West’s mansion for an entire week. Pictured John Safran
John told the ABC he hadn’t travelled to LA with the intention to squat in Kanye’s mansion.
‘But once I got over there and chatted to people, it became apparent that the most interesting [thread] to me was the history of Jewish Americans and Black Americans – how they’ve been allies but have also butted heads,’ he explained.
‘[During interviews] I learned a squatter had previously stayed in a schoolhouse that Kanye had set up and then abandoned. That set the thought in motion.’
‘I found out from the neighbours that he hadn’t been seen there for quite a while.’
Kanye bought the ranch when he was still married to Kim Kardashian, with their divorce officially being finalised back in November 2022.
The singer initially purchased the property in 2018 and used it for Sunday Service and his Donda Academy headquarters – an unaccredited Christian private school for pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade.
Kanye reportedly lived on the property with his then-model girlfriend Irina Shayk.
There are reportedly two guest houses on the property with six bedroom and seven bathrooms altogether.
In early 2023, Jewish documentarian, satirist and author John Safran spent seven days in the rapper’s home in Calabasas, California , after he travelled from Melbourne to LA to investigate a slew of anti-Semitic remarks made by the rapper
The domes on the property – which are now nonexistent – had been 50-foot ‘Yecosystems.’
West constructed the domes through the architecture branch of his Yeezy label, dubbed Yeezy Home, which he launched in 2018. ‘We’re looking for architects and industrial designers who want to make the world better,’ he said at the time.
Pictures taken of the property in July this year show the compound is abandoned and now completely in ruins.
Pictures taken of Kanye’s Calabasas property in July this year show the compound is abandoned and now completely in ruins
