Although Whitney Houston’s cousin slammed Kanye West for using a photo of the late singer’s drug-strewn bathroom as the cover for Pusha T’s new album, her nephew says he doesn’t blame the musicians for choosing the image.
“Not to be divisive, but I’m of a different mindset when it comes to situations like this,” Gary Michael Houston, the son of Houston’s older brother Michael, told Good Morning America in a statement.
“People will automatically look to people like Pusha T and Kanye West and try to place blame or say they have ill or malicious intent to gain publicity. But I get it. I get the correlation (sans my aunt but the photo itself),” the 31-year-old continued, adding that he’s “actually” a fan of the album.
“Bottom line — they are artists and in this day and age, if they can afford to pay someone for usage of that photograph in order to convey a visual message to accompany their musicianship…then so be it,” he explained.
The 31-year-old also added that if fans want to be mad at anybody, they should direct their outrage to “the person who violated the trust of my aunt by taking the photo and selling it to the tabloids” in the first place.
In 2006, the National Enquirer featured the photo showing Houston’s bathroom filled with drug-covered spoons and drug paraphernalia on its cover, which had been taken secretly by a family member in 2006 as the late singer struggled with drug addiction.
For more details: people.com
