Bobby Brown criticizes Kanye West for using photo of ex-wife Whitney Houston's drug-strewn bathroom
Bobby Brown said it was 'really disgusting' that Kanye West spent $85,000 on a photo of his late ex-wife Whitney Houston's drug-strewn bathroom for another rapper's album cover.
The 49-year-old singer told Rolling Stone in an interview on Wednesday that he had not seen the cover of Pusha-T's new Daytona album.
'Why would he post that on his album cover?,' Bobby said.
Album art: Bobby Brown, shown earlier this month in Kentucky, said he found it 'really disgusting' that Kanye West licensed a photo for $85,000 of Whitney Houston's drug-strewn bathroom for another rapper's album cover
'That's really disgusting that he would do that. That's in really bad taste,' he added.
The singer called Kanye 'crazy' and said 'something should happen' to him.
'Now he's pushing the bar a little bit. He needs somebody to slap him up or something. And I'm just the person to do it,' said the former New Edition member.
Whitney's cousin Damon Elliott also criticized Kanye for the decision, calling it a 'disgusting publicity stunt'.
Former couple: Whitney and Bobby are shown together in December 1999 in New York City
He told People magazine: 'I've watched the train wreck happening, but I didn't think he'd go this far in invading someone's family privacy.'
He continued: 'To do something for a publicity stunt to sell records, it's absolutely disgusting,' adding that 'it hurt my family and my daughter. It's petty. It's tacky.'
Damon said that his daughter found out about the picture and sent it to him: 'I immediately got sick to my stomach because it took me right back to six years ago,' reports People.
Icon: Whitney's cousin Damon Elliott criticized the rapper's choice of using the image - which shows her drug strewn bathroom; Whitney pictured in 2004
Candid: Damon told People magazine: 'I've watched the train wreck happening, but I didn't think he'd go this far in invading someone's family privacy;' Kanye West pictured with Kim Kardashian in West Hollywood
The music producer said that if he gets a chance to talk to Kanye, he would ask him why and 'what is the creative side of this? What's the point?' because 'It shows no creativity.'
Damon said when he heard about the news, 'it knocked the wind out of' him.
He concluded: 'When someone passes, you try to mourn and move on and remember the good times,' according to People.
Controversial: This is the image that ended up on Pusha T's album cover - Whitney's drug-strewn bathroom taken in 2006 inside her Atlanta mansion
In an interview last week rapper Pusha-T revealed Kanye- who co-produced his new Daytona album, decided to switch up the artwork, opting instead for the picture of the late singer's bathroom.
'1 a.m., my phone rings, no caller-ID,' Pusha told Power 105.1 of the call he received from the 40-year-old Gold Digger rapper.
''Hey, yeah, I think that we should change the artwork. I like this other artwork.'' he recalled Kanye saying.
Decisions: Kanye reportedly spent $85,000 on an image of Whitney Houston's bathroom to use as artwork for Pusha T's album
Pusha explained, 'Now this other artwork is 85 grand. I said, 'Hey, I don't want to pay for that. And I wasn't even going to ask you to pay for that. We picked what we picked. It's here, it's ready.''
Kanye apparently replied 'No, this what people need to see to go with this music. I'ma pay for that.' according to Pusha.
'Ummm, it's a picture,' Pusha explained.'It's a picture. … It's just a picture that to license it worldwide is 85 grand. I'm not really too, too, too entrenched in the art world like that. I'm just going to let him do that thing. And he's paying for it.'
The image Kanye bought the rights for, reportedly taken in 2006 inside Whitney's Atlanta mansion, shows a messy bathroom vanity with drug paraphernalia strewn around the sink.
Whitney was found dead in the bathroom of her Beverly Hilton Hotel room in 2012 aged 48.
'We picked what we picked': Pusha told Power 105.1 that he was happy with the artwork already chosen for his Daytona album but that Kanye wanted to change it
'I'm just going to let him do that thing. And he's paying for it.' Pusha explained after revealing the amount Kanye paid for the image
Kanye later took to Twitter to unveil Pusha's album, and proudly showed off the artwork.
'Daytona is the first project out of Wyoming. I'm really proud of what we put together. We've spent a year and a half digging for samples and writing.'
'I really appreciate the overwhelmingly positive response that we've been receiving.' he wrote.
'Really proud': Kanye took to Twitter on Thursday to unveil the project