Family is messy. For most of us, that means an awkward Thanksgiving or a relative who borrows money and "forgets" to pay it back. For Kanye West—or Ye, as he’s officially known now—family drama involves a $250,000 extortion plot and a stolen laptop.
If you’ve listened to The Life of Pablo, you already know the line. It’s the one where he vents about a cousin who stole his computer. The one he was "f*ckin' bitches on." It’s a bar that cemented "Real Friends" as one of his most vulnerable, paranoid tracks.
But who is this guy? Is there just one cousin? Honestly, the deeper you look into Kanye's family tree, the more you realize "the cousin" isn't just one person—it’s a revolving door of betrayal, grief, and very public confessions.
The Laptop Cousin: A $250,000 Betrayal
Let’s talk about the most famous one. This is the cousin from the lyrics in "Real Friends" and "No More Parties in LA." For years, people thought it might just be a metaphor for fame. It wasn’t.
According to another relative, Lawrence Franklin, the story is 100% real. In 2012, Kanye allegedly gave a laptop to a family member as a gift. He thought he’d wiped it. He hadn't. Inside that hard drive was a sex tape featuring Kanye and an unidentified woman.
The relative who ended up with the device realized they were sitting on a gold mine. Instead of giving it back or deleting it, they reportedly hired a lawyer and demanded a payout. Kanye, desperate to keep the footage from leaking just as his relationship with Kim Kardashian was getting serious, allegedly paid $250,000 to get it back.
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Imagine that. You give a gift to your own blood, and they turn around and hold your private life for ransom. Lawrence Franklin told the Daily Mail that this specific incident was the beginning of Kanye’s "decline" in trust. It’s hard to blame him. If you can't trust your auntie's kids, who can you trust?
The fallout was brutal
- The Trust Gap: After the laptop incident, Kanye reportedly started distancing himself from his extended family.
- The Lyrics: He couldn't help but put it on wax. "Paid that n***a 250 thousand just to get it from him / Real friends, huh?"
- The Lie Detector: Some reports claim Kanye even made family members take polygraph tests to ensure nothing else was leaked.
The Other Cousin: A Life Sentence and Dark Confessions
Fast forward to 2025, and the "cousin" conversation took a much darker, weirder turn. In April 2025, Ye released a track titled "COUSINS." It wasn't about a stolen laptop. It was about a relative currently serving a double life sentence for murder.
This is a person Kanye has mentioned before. Back in 2018, he told Jimmy Kimmel, "My cousin is locked up for murder and I love him." He used it as an example of loving people even when they do "bad things."
But the "COUSINS" track and the social media posts surrounding it went into graphic, uncomfortable detail. Ye claimed that he and this cousin engaged in sexual experimentation as children, starting when the cousin was six and Ye was fourteen. He expressed a bizarre sense of guilt, suggesting that showing his cousin "dirty magazines" somehow set the boy on a path that ended in the murder of a pregnant woman.
It’s heavy stuff. It’s also classic Ye—blurring the lines between personal trauma and public performance. While the laptop cousin was about greed, this cousin represents a deep-seated family trauma that seems to haunt him.
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Not All Cousins Are "Dirty Motherf*ckers"
It’s easy to focus on the drama, but Kanye actually has family members who have been staples of his career.
Tony Williams is perhaps the most famous. He’s Kanye’s first cousin and a world-class singer. You’ve heard his vocals on everything from The College Dropout to Donda. He’s the guy who provides that soulful backbone to tracks like "I'll Fly Away" and "Blood on the Leaves."
Then there’s Devo Harris (also known as Devo Springsteen). He’s a cousin who helped produce some of the early GOOD Music hits. He actually won a Grammy for his work on "Diamonds from Sierra Leone."
And we can’t forget Ricky Anderson. He worked for GOOD Music for years. Tragically, in 2017, Ricky’s 16-month-old son, Avery, passed away in his sleep. It was a moment where the family actually seemed to pull together, showing that despite the "Real Friends" lyrics, there is still a bond there.
Why Kanye's Cousin Matters for SEO and Fans
People search for "who is Kanye's cousin" because his music is essentially a public diary. When he name-drops a relative, he isn't just venting; he's building a narrative.
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The laptop story matters because it explains his shift from the "Old Kanye" to the more isolated, paranoid version we see today. It’s the moment the "family business" became a liability.
What to take away from the saga
- The Laptop Cousin remains anonymous. While Lawrence Franklin spoke out about the event, the actual relative who took the $250k has never been publicly named by Kanye.
- The Incest Allegations (2025): These claims are linked to a cousin serving a life sentence, whom Kim Kardashian also reportedly tried to help through her justice reform work before their divorce.
- The Music is the Key: If you want to understand the timeline, listen to "Real Friends," "No More Parties in LA," and the 2025 release "COUSINS."
If you're looking for a simple answer, there isn't one. "Kanye's cousin" is a character in his life story that represents everything from artistic collaboration (Tony Williams) to the ultimate betrayal of trust (the laptop thief).
The next time you hear Ye ranting on a track about family, remember that for him, a "family reunion" isn't just about potato salad and stories—it's a high-stakes negotiation where the price of admission is often a quarter of a million dollars.
Check out the credits on The Life of Pablo or Donda to see just how deep the Williams and Franklin family ties actually go. You'll find that for every relative trying to sell a laptop, there's another one in the studio helping him make history.