Kanye West Blasted Over Demanding Artist Use Unflattering Whitney Houston Album Art

Whitney Houston‘s estate has chimed in on Kanye West‘s choice to allow an artist he produces to use a drug-filled bathroom photo as album art reportedly belonging to the late singer.

The estate said in a posting they were “extremely disappointed in Kanye’s choice” to license a photo of the artist’s drug-covered bathroom counter for the cover of Pusha-T‘s new Daytona album.

Houston’s estate registered its disapproval in a statement to ET on Tuesday. “Even in Whitney’s death, we see that no one is exempt from the harsh realities of the world,” the estate added.

Rapper Pusha later said he questioned the use of the controversial photo while discussing album art with West, but was later dismissed by West, the album’s executive producer, who didn’t want to spend the extra cash on any last minute changes.

“[Originally], the artwork, it was pictures that we all agreed on,” the rapper explained. “[West] picked the photographer, I took these pictures, I was like, ‘Yo, these are fresh.’ I picked all of these pictures out, he had a little edit to it, how he wanted the actual grading of the picture to look. Picked the picture, great, we look, boom, boom, boom, it’s good.” source

West changed his mind at the last minute, according to Pusha-T. “1 a.m., my phone rings, no caller ID,” he continued. “[West says,] ‘Hey, I think we should change the artwork, and I like this other artwork.’ I said, ‘hey, I don’t want to pay for that, and I wasn’t even gonna ask you to pay for that.'” West replied, “this is what people need to see to go along with that music.” He covered the $85,000 licensing fee for the photo.