First Day Vinyl deserves better than a hate mob
Kanye fans are very normal.
I was mindlessly scrolling Instagram on Saturday when the platform's algorithm served me a fun post from First Day Vinyl. It was a video (since-deleted; more on that below) of the record store's staff destroying copies of Kanye West's new album. Kanye's label had shipped the records without asking, apparently expecting First Day Vinyl to sell them as a Record Store Day promotion. While I don't remember the exact wording, the caption on the video was something along the lines of 'only Nazis will cry about this.'
Frankly, the video was amazing.
There's a lengthy list of reasons why Kanye sucks shit. I can't lie and say I've never enjoyed his music, but the man has told us — over and over and in so many ways — exactly how antisemitic and hateful he is. In the year of our lord 2026, there's no good reason to promote, sell, share, or critically engage with his music. Yeah sure, he's on an apology tour right now. But redemption and forgiveness both take a lot of work, and after half a decade of mainstreaming Nazi propaganda and cuddling up to fascists, that means doing a bit more than buying a newspaper ad that says "I'm sorry" right before your new album drops. Trashing that record — especially if it was forced on you as a PR stunt — is a fully reasonable move.
Unfortunately, Kanye still has legions of deranged stans and since Saturday, some of them have been harassing the folks at First Day Vinyl. The store has been review bombed on Yelp and received death threats. The vitriol has apparently gotten so bad that owner Travis Mannschreck pulled the video down and wrote a response to the backlash, explaining that the original post was made out of frustration at receiving records the store didn't want and never asked for. (He also clarified that he doesn't think someone is a bad person just because a musician they like has done bad stuff.)
You can read that post here:
As far as I can tell, the campaign against First Day Vinyl — like basically every other hate mob that begins on the internet these days — started on the cesspool of white nationalism formerly known as Twitter. (It's also, not coincidentally, the same platform Kanye used to release his song praising Hitler less than a year ago.) Some blue-check account that farms engagement by posting about music news shared the video on Sunday and a few chuds went viral by dunking on the staff for supposedly being "performative" or hypocritical. (There were a lot of comments to the effect of: 'How can you destroy Kanye's records when you stock other artists who have done horrible things?')
Travis's response to this kind of criticism and his explanation of why First Day Vinyl sells the work of other problematic musicians is worth reading. It's an earnest engagement with the anger directed at the store. I don't know Travis personally but he seems like a thoughtful guy, and it makes me mad to think that his good faith message will be completely wasted on the bad faith actors currently waging a hate campaign against his store. Because there's ultimately no appeasing the kind of deranged freaks who come after you because you insulted the celebrity they worship; doubly so if that celebrity is a Nazi.
I can certainly understand why First Day Vinyl deleted the video; the store needs to protect their staff and customers and keeping it up wouldn't help with that. You can still find the video circulating online if you want — and I stand by my statement that it's a banger — though I'm not going to link to it out of respect for the store's decision to pull it. And none of this is meant as a criticism of First Day Vinyl's response; they're clearly doing the best they can in a miserable situation. There's just no good way to respond to this kind of targeted harassment campaign. Everything about it sucks.
But you know what doesn't suck? First Day Vinyl! They're a cool store, and if you're into physical music and care about the local scene, they deserve your support and solidarity. They even stock local music! So go find a new favorite artist and permanently eject Kanye's music from your life, if you ever bothered to listen to him at all.
~ Ty
P.S. I posted in support of the record store on Instagram and almost immediately got this DM from some random Kanye stan. A very normal and well-adjusted fanbase!
