DJ who played ‘Heil Hitler’ in Miami Beach makes statement. Here’s what he said
A DJ who played an antisemitic song requested by right-wing influencers at a Miami Beach nightclub has apologized in a statement on Instagram, saying he didn’t understand what the song was before he played it.
The DJ, who goes by DJ Vybz, wrote that he was sent a song file titled “HH” — masking the song’s true name, “Heil Hitler” — and that he had “no indication of the song’s context.”
Videos that went viral online and sparked enormous backlash showed the influencers inside the South Beach club Vendôme last Saturday while the song by Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, was playing.
“As a DJ, it is normal to receive song requests, especially during a bottle parade,” read the DJ’s statement posted Friday. “In this instance, I received an Airdrop titled ‘HH’, with no indication of the song’s context. After playing the song it became clear that the lyrics were offensive. As soon as I realized the songs [sic] nature, I was stunned and shocked and immediately looked for another song to switch to.”
The DJ wrote that he takes “full responsibility” for the incident and “should have listened to the song or asked about its content before playing it.”
“I sincerely apologize to anyone who has been offended by the playing of this song, especially to my family and friends in the Jewish community,” he wrote.
The DJ’s statement did not address who sent him the song file.
Footage from the evening appears to show two of the club’s co-owners, Byram Zaied and Jonathan Mansour, inside the club with the group of influencers. The group included brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who face charges of rape and human trafficking overseas, and Nick Fuentes, an open antisemite and Holocaust denier.
In a statement after the incident, Vendôme wrote on social media that it does not “condone antisemitism, hate speech, or prejudice of any kind.”
The club later posted that three employees had been fired after an internal review, though it wasn’t clear which employees had been fired or what they had allegedly done.
READ MORE: ‘Utter disgust’ over Miami Beach’s Vendôme playing ‘Heil Hitler’ for influencers
DJ Vybz did not respond to questions and interview requests from the Miami Herald. Zaied and Mansour could not be reached for comment.
The incident has prompted condemnation from Miami Beach city officials and leaders in the Jewish community.
“Antisemitism, hate speech, or the normalization of extremist ideology has no place in our Miami Beach community, our nightlife, or any public setting,” Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner wrote in a statement posted on social media.
“Heil Hitler” has been banned in Germany and removed from major American music platforms.
On Monday, Ye, the song’s author, took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal apologizing for his history of antisemitic statements, writing that he is “not a Nazi or an antisemite.”
The ad did not mention “Heil Hitler,” though its timing coincided with a wave of notoriety for the song and rejection of its message in the days since the nightclub incident.
Miami Herald religion reporter Lauren Costantino contributed to this story.
