When John Safran found himself in Kanye West’s mansion, he decided to seize the opportunity at hand and enjoy a week-long writing retreat. Because, why not? It would be great material for his new book, where he attempts to track down Ye to chat about antisemitism.
Safran told The AJN though that the squatting itself wasn’t actually planned. Instead, there were a series of events that led him to trudge through the mud and water to gain access to Ye’s home, which as described in Squat, is a little worse for wear.
“When I got on the plane, I absolutely had no idea that I was going to squat in Ye’s mansion,” Safran said. “I had to go through the exploration, and meet the other squatter from the school, for that to happen. The only thing I did was run with my impulses and say ‘okay, I’ll figure this out later.’”
The ‘other squatter’ Safran is talking about had left some bits and bobs at the Donda Academy, Ye’s mysterious school. Safran had discovered a bike and some posters at the school when he and his then-girlfriend were walking through. They then tracked him down for a chat.
The Donda Academy closed due to the rapper’s antisemitic comments. Like when he said that he would go “death con 3” on Jewish people. Soon after that tweet, other conspiratorial, racist and antisemitic statements by Ye were revealed, including the claim that black people are the Lost Tribes of Israel, and that he was being targeted by “the Jewish media”. His obsession with Hitler, which reportedly goes back decades, also became a hot topic.
It was all this behaviour and these comments that led Safran to board a plane for LA.

Safran is known for pushing the boundaries and has made a career from getting into situations he probably shouldn’t be in.
Like squatting in Ye’s mansion, a two-storey house on the property and even the SHERP, a utility vehicle that was on the grounds.
While Safran explained that he never normalised his situation, it wasn’t necessarily something that scared him. Certainly not enough to stop.
“I use his mansion as a writer’s retreat, because it’s quite on theme,” he laughed. “I think if this was my first book, I would have been nervous. But even though I hadn’t quite figured everything out, this is my fourth, so I had a bit of confidence. I liked the challenge.”
Did he ever think someone was going to catch him? According to the author, not in the traditional sense.
“Yes and no,” he explained. “In the same way that when you’re speeding a bit in your car, you never think of the full consequences, like ‘hang on, I could become a quadriplegic’. You just think it’s going to be okay. But there’s also my creative drive.”
For Safran, it’s simply part of his job. Had he not followed through, his writing wouldn’t have been ‘Safran-y’ enough.
“There are much easier ways to do things. But people wouldn’t be interested in me doing this fly-on-the-wall thing if I don’t become complicit in it. That’s what sparks it and makes it all come alive.”
Safran also tells me that questioning everything is just part of his personality and his Judaism, going back to his days at Yeshivah College in Melbourne.
“I’ve realised that sometimes non-Jews think I’m being riskier than I am when it comes to the Jewish stuff. But you get rewarded for questioning things in Judaism,” he said, going on to reference the Chumash – there’s the Torah portion in the middle and the commentary on the sides, where the rabbis don’t ever agree on things. “There’s no conclusion,” he points out.
It’s this constant questioning that makes up Squat. And it’s not only the main characters in Ye’s life who Safran speaks to. It’s the side characters too. Some of whom become central to the story. Like, for example, when Safran is speaking to Ye’s pastor, he strikes up a conversation with another man who sleeps in his car on the church grounds, who ends up revealing a lot of information that Safran can use.
“There are much easier ways to do things. But people wouldn’t be interested in me doing this fly-on-the-wall thing if I don’t become complicit in it. That’s what sparks it and makes it all come alive.”
Safran also uses his famous YEmulke to strike up conversations. When he is convinced that Ye is in the building, he brings the YEmulke, which he made using old Yeezy sneakers.
“Again, I had no idea what I was going to ask. The YEmulke became this tool that I would pull out and say, ‘I’m writing this thing about Kanye, I have to show you this Kanye West Yeezy sneaker that I’ve repurposed into a Jewish skullcap.’ And they’d usually laugh and then start talking,” Safran recalled.
But at any point, did Safran believe he’d come face to face with Ye himself? In essence, Safran said, he doesn’t know, but it becomes almost normal to bump into famous people in America, especially in LA.
Not that he ever thought what he was doing was normal.
“I was in this odd situation, because I’d made my way into the mansion, and it was unsettling. I kept looking for sightlines where someone might see me from across the street. But it wouldn’t be the strangest thing to see someone famous, even Ye.”
Even though the adventures in the US took place several months before the October 7 massacre, Safran does acknowledge everything that happened, including the events on October 9 at the Sydney Opera House, where he was marched on “for his own safety”.
“Squat was always about looking at Jewish identity through the lens of the history of Jewish Americans, and black Americans in its own whacky way,” Safran said. “I had to acknowledge it, otherwise readers would be questioning why it’s a book that discusses antisemitism, but doesn’t talk about that rally.”
Safran explained that especially, he wanted to ensure that readers knew he wasn’t going to hide.
“It’s easier not to do it,” he said, referring to being loud and proud. “But in this time, I’m not going to pull my head in like a turtle. I’m not going to do a book about Jewish identity without it. I’m marching forward. I know some Jews are about pulling their heads in, but I’m not.”
Squat is published by Penguin, $36.99 rrp
comments