The internet reacts to Kanye West’s reimagined McDonald’s food packaging
In March 2022, American rapper Kanye “Ye” West was suspended from Instagram for 24 hours after his attacks on Pete Davidson, Kim Kardashian and Trevor Noah were considered a violation of the platform’s policies on hate speech, bullying and harassment. Since then, Ye’s Instagram page was wiped empty of all posts… until now.
Breaking his Instagram silence on 23 May 2022, the rapper has returned to the platform to tease his new business venture with McDonald’s. This time, however, he’s not featured in another one of those “Let me get uhhhhhhhhh” Super Bowl commercials that went viral in February 2022. Nor does this collaboration have anything to do with Ye’s homage to the golden arches with his The McDonald’s Man poem, which landed inside Frank Ocean’s Boys Don’t Cry magazine.
Though the artist has had plenty of brushes with the fast food giant, this collaboration is a bit different. This time around, he’s cooking up a new design for McDonald’s food packaging altogether.
“Ye teams up with industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa to reimagine McDonald’s packaging,” the Instagram post uploaded to Ye’s account read. The blurry picture of the reimagined packaging looks like a mini sandwich in itself—complete with a transparent wrapper showcasing the contents of the box with the famous golden arches on top.
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It should be noted that Ye’s reimagined McDonald’s packaging falls perfectly in line with the rapper’s minimal and understated approach to Yeezy and his infamous interior decor style. It is also a far cry from the traditional McDonald’s design, which features brightly-coloured boxes with the iconic logo.
The Instagram post in question came just a few hours after Ye teased the collab on his Story, by referencing a line from his 2005 hit ‘Gold Digger’ where he raps: “He got that ambition, baby, look at his eyes. This week he moppin’ floors, next week it’s the fries.”
“Next week it’s the fries,” he went on to write under the photo of the redesign.
While TMZ pointed out that Ye was spotted with his girlfriend Chaney Jones in Japan earlier this month—where he was possibly working with Naoto Fukasawa on finalising packaging ideas—the announcement shook the internet as soon as it was uploaded onto Instagram.
“Bro is doing side quests,” a top comment under the post read, while another admitted how they were “still waiting on that McDONDA meal.” While many praised the packaging for its futuristic vibes, others rejoiced at Kanye’s return to Instagram. “Babe wake up ye posted,” a user wrote.
Meanwhile, the news sent Twitter into a whole other social media rut. And we’ve rounded up some of the best reactions to Kanye’s “McYeezy” on the platform:
He gonna drop something like this and call it art pic.twitter.com/CTDy2WsBjj
— 🅿️ (@petachip_) May 23, 2022
this not Roblox Kanye
— Dylan | Ariana Apologist 🥥 (@dylanbehavior) May 23, 2022
And there is no students in Arts who could have done the job ? What about encouraging those who really need a bit of help ?
— Kit (@Kit81180640) May 23, 2022
Very impressed with the new Kanye West McDonald’s packaging… https://t.co/eJDEbt01od pic.twitter.com/hSohugPO6K
— 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵 𝘑𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘶𝘴 (@DaveShecky) May 23, 2022
Me turning into a genius after eating McDonald’s out of Kanye’s packaging pic.twitter.com/Hyt11SzPM8
— ℍ𝕖𝕣𝕠® (@hearmecallin_) May 24, 2022
