Rapper Kanye West has claimed that his recent series of provocative tweets were part of a “social experiment” to test whether he would retain his Twitter account and financial status. The musician, also known as Ye, made the assertion after engaging in a 12-hour spree of posts that drew significant public attention and backlash.

The artist formerly known as Kanye West quit social media Sunday, having spent most of the prior week publishing exceedingly racist, antisemitic and misogynistic content online. Ye’s last posts on X,