Whitney Houston's cousin Damon Elliott criticized the rapper's choice of using the image - which shows her drug strewn bathroom. Photo / Twitter
Whitney Houston's cousin Damon Elliott criticized the rapper's choice of using the image - which shows her drug strewn bathroom. Photo / Twitter
Kanye West spent $85,000 (NZD $122,000) on a photo of Whitney Houston's drug-strewn bathroom to use as as Pusha T's new Daytona album cover, reports Daily Mail.
And now Whitney Houston's cousin Damon Elliott has criticized the rapper for the decision, calling it a "disgusting publicity stunt".
Hetold People magazine: 'I've watched the train wreck happening, but I didn't think he'd go this far in invading someone's family privacy.'
He continued: "To do something for a publicity stunt to sell records, it's absolutely disgusting,' adding that 'it hurt my family and my daughter. It's petty. It's tacky."
Kanye reportedly spent $122,000 on an image of Whitney Houston's bathroom to use as artwork for Pusha T's album. Photo / Getty Images
Damon said that his daughter found out about the picture and sent it to him: "I immediately got sick to my stomach because it took me right back to six years ago," reports People.
The music producer said that if he gets a chance to talk to Kanye, he would ask him why and "what is the creative side of this? What's the point?" because "It shows no creativity."
Damon said when he heard about the news, "it knocked the wind out of" him.
Damon concluded: "When someone passes, you try to mourn and move on and remember the good times," according to People.
"We picked what we picked": Pusha told Power 105.1 that he was happy with the artwork already chosen for his Daytona album but that Kanye wanted to change it. Photo / Getty Images
In an interview this week rapper Pusha-T revealed Kanye- who co-produced his new Daytona album, decided to switch up the artwork, opting instead for the picture of the late singer's bathroom.
"1 a.m., my phone rings, no caller-ID," Pusha told Power 105.1 of the call he received from the 40-year-old Gold Digger rapper.
"'Hey, yeah, I think that we should change the artwork. I like this other artwork.'" he recalled Kanye saying.
Pusha explained, "Now 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.'"
Kanye apparently replied "No, this what people need to see to go with this music. I'ma pay for that." according to Pusha.
"Ummm, it's a picture," Pusha explained. "It's a picture. … It's just a picture that to license it worldwide is 85 grand. I'm not really too, too, too entrenched in the art world like that. I'm just going to let him do that thing. And he's paying for it."
The image Kanye bought the rights for, reportedly taken in 2006 inside Whitney's Atlanta mansion, shows a messy bathroom vanity with drug paraphernalia strewn around the sink.
Whitney was found dead in the bathroom of her Beverly Hills Hotel room in 2012. Photo / Getty Images
Whitney was found dead in the bathroom of her Beverly Hilton Hotel room in 2012 aged 48.
Later on Thursday Kanye took to Twitter to unveil Pusha's album, and proudly showed off the artwork.
"Daytona is the first project out of Wyoming. I'm really proud of what we put together. We've spent a year and a half digging for samples and writing."
