G-Eazy Ends H&M Partnership in the Wake of Offensive Ad

Rapper G-Eazy has announced that he's ending his relationship with Swedish retailer H&M over an ad that showed a black child model wearing a hoodie that said "coolest monkey in the jungle" across the front.

The disturbing image led the Oakland, Calif., rapper, whose real name is Gerald Gillum, to announce in a tweet that "our partnership needs to end."

Earlier this week singer The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, did the same. The Canadian had partnered with the Sweden-based company for its 2017 Spring Icons Collection and modeled some of its apparel.

On Monday, The Weeknd tweeted that he was "shocked and embarrassed" and "deeply offended" and "will not be working with @hm anymore..." along with a photo of the ad.

By 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, it had been retweeted close to 103,000 times and "liked" almost 230,000 times.

H&M was accused on social media of being racist after using the photo online to sell a hoodie in the U.K. Other celebrities who have denounced the ad include Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James and rapper Sean Combs. 

H&M removed the image and the sweatshirt is no longer for sale anywhere.On Wednesday, the retailer issued a lengthy apology.
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"We agree with all the criticism that this has generated – we have got this wrong and we agree that, even if unintentional, passive or casual racism needs to be eradicated wherever it exists . . .We will now be doing everything we possibly can to prevent this from happening again in future.''

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