In spite of what you may have read online, Kanye West did not die in a car disaster. The rapper is just the latest celebrity to be bite by fake death rumors, which rapidly spread on Twitter. At press time, it was unknown where the rumor in progress, but some were pointing to the image board 4chan.org as the source of the phony report that West had died in a crash involving two custom cars in Los Angeles.
It quickly blossomed into e-mail chains and comment threads on Face book and Twitter. Computer security blog Sophos.com track the origins of the scam; tie it to hackers who worn the rumor to push the false reports to the top of Internet search engine results. By Wednesday morning (October 21), “Kanye West died” (and variations of the phrase) was one of the most-searched topics on Google Trends. At the same time as a spokesperson for West could not be reach for comment at press time, the rapper’s girlfriend, model Amber Rose, tweeted, “This ‘RIP Kanye West’ topic is not funny and it’s NOT TRUE! He has people like me and his family that love him very much. …
It’s in extreme poor taste to have that as a trendy topic. It’s totally disrespectful to make up a story like this we’re all human … and we all make mistake and to say an important person died cuz of a mistake is ridiculous. You wouldn’t want somebody to say that about you.” The fake news story claims that “a bizarre car crash in Los Angeles concerning two luxury cars early this morning rapper Kanye West dead, a second injured, a third arrested for gross vehicular manslaughter and a fourth person was detained by police. A Los Angeles Police Department officer witness the wreck and saw a red Ferrari and a white Porsche ‘spinning out of control’ on Jamboree Road between Bison Avenue and East Bluff Drive.”
The story goes on to provide a seemingly detailed account of the wreckage and injuries, complete with quotes from an LAPD lieutenant on the scene. It’s probable that it was timed to exploit the attention West got earlier this week when the bizarre short film called “We Were Once a Fairytale” he created with “Where the Wild Things Are” director Spike Jonze, was briefly posted on West’s blog, then taken down with no explanation. The fake death reports are just the latest to spread like viral wildfire this year, following on the heels of similar rumors about celebrities Jeff Goldblum, Matt Damon, Natalie Portman, Emma Watson, Justin Bieber, Lil Wayne and Miley Cyrus.