Whitney Houston's estate slams Kanye West for using photo of late singer's bathroom
The estate is "extremely disappointed in Kanye's choice."
The estate of singing icon Whitney Houston is officially responding to Kanye West's use of a photo of her bathroom on the cover of an album he produced.
The rapper and producer used the photo, which depicts the messy bathroom vanity strewn with items including what could have been drug paraphernalia, for the cover of Pusha T's album, "Daytona," released on his label GOOD Music.
Houston was found dead at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in 2012. Prescription drugs were found near her body and bottles of alcohol were found in an adjacent room. She was 48. The photo used was reportedly taken years before her death.
Houston's estate has come forward and said they are "extremely disappointed in Kanye's choice," in a statement to Entertainment Tonight.
"Even in Whitney’s death, we see that no one is exempt from the harsh realities of the world," the statement continues.
Houston's estate did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for further comment.
The estate is not the first entity or person to speak out again West using this photo. When the album dropped last week, Houston's cousin Damon Elliott told People magazine that the usage of the image was hurtful.
He said he found out when his daughter called him in a panic.
"She sent me this picture from the album cover and I immediately got sick to my stomach because it took me right back to six years ago," the music producer told the magazine. "To do something for a publicity stunt to sell records, it’s absolutely disgusting. It hurt my family and my daughter. It’s petty. It’s tacky."
"I’ve watched the train wreck happening," Elliott added, referring to West's recent headlines, "but I didn’t think he’d go this far in invading someone’s family privacy."
However, Houston's nephew, Gary Michael Houston, said that the anger has been misplaced. Gary Michael Houston, the son of the singer's brother Michael, told "Good Morning America" that fans should be upset with the unnamed family member who took the 2006 photo that later appeared in the National Enquirer.
“Not to be divisive, but I’m of a different mindset when it comes to situations like this. 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 in order to gain publicity. But I get it. I get the correlation (sans my aunt but the photo itself),” Gary Michael Houston said in a statement, “and I actually love 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,” the hip hop artist added.
The controversial photo came at high price. Pusha T said West told him he paid $85,000 for the rights to use the photo.
In an interview last week with Angie Martinez, Pusha T explained that the West decided to change the cover last minute. In fact, the original artwork was supposed to be a picture of him.
"One a.m., my phone rings. No caller I.D.," the rapper said in the interview. "[West said], 'Hey, yeah, I think we should change the artwork.' And, 'I like this other artwork. And this other artwork is 85 grand.' I said, 'Hey, I don't want to pay for that and I wasn’t even going to ask you to pay for that. We picked what we picked, it’s here, it’s ready.' 'No, this is what people need to see to go along with this music. Im'ma pay for that.'"
"Good Morning America"'s Joi-Marie McKenzie contributed to this report.
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