Who is Ian Connor? Kanye partners with accused r*pist to hand out 'White Lives Matter' shirts to the homeless

American rapper Kanye West is reportedly giving out "White Lives Matter" t-shirts to homeless people with the help of accused r*pist Ian Connor.

On Monday, October 17, the 29-year-old stylist took to his Twitter handle to share a video where it seems that the 45-year-old rapper's team was handing out t-shirts for free in the Skid Row neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The 24-second video shows the camera recording a busy street with several cars and people and a sprinter van parked right in the middle of a road loaded with cardboard boxes. A voice then says:

"Courtesy of Kanye West."

A man then approaches the camera person wearing a Homeboy Industries shirt and heads towards the vehicle as the latter suggests that he "hang it up" at their food stall.

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All you need to know about Ian Connor and his link to Kanye West

29-year-old stylist and fashion influencer Ian Connor was born on January 2, 1993, in New York.

He rose to prominence in 2012 when his Tumblr blog shot to fame due to his collaboration with Ken Rebel, Joo Henderson, Glyn Brown, and Ade Oyeyemi. In the same year, he was listed in Complex's 25 Under 25: The Young Leaders of Style.

Ian Connor has been working with Kanye West for a while and used to be a consultant for the rapper's Yeezy brand. He describes himself as the "creative director" of a shirt which features West as Muhammad Ali fighting Tremaine Emory (Supreme's creative director) as Superman.

Kanye West was recently seen wearing the abovementioned shirt. However, Connor has not collaborated with West since 2016 after the latter fired him over his s*xual assault allegations by several women, in addition to comments made by Amber Rose that many women had approached her privately about the stylist's behavior.

Defending himself while talking to the news outlet Broadly, Connor said:

"I do not condone r*pe and I have never r*ped anyone. Why force somebody to do something they don't want to do? Any forced situation is not cool."

In 2020, Ian Connor's accusation toll rose from 21 to 33 women. However, he did not seem to take the matter seriously and mocked it on Twitter. He wrote:

Meanwhile, Kanye West has been making headlines for his anti-semitic thoughts and views recently. The spree of controversies began when the Famous rapper wore a "White Lives Matter" t-shirt to Paris Fashion Week while showcasing his Yeezy season 9 collection.

He then made several anti-Jew comments on his Instagram handle and even accused Sean "Diddy" Combs of being "controlled" by the Jews, after which he was restricted from the social media platform for violating its rules.

He was also restricted from Twitter two days after returning to the platform for making controversial comments.