Whitney Houston's Cousin Slams Kanye West for Using Drug-Filled Photo of Late Singer's Bathroom

Whitney Houston's cousin is slamming Kanye West for using a controversial photo of the late [...]

By John Connor Coulston

Whitney Houston's cousin is slamming Kanye West for using a controversial photo of the late singer's home for an album he produced.

West produced all of Pusha T's new album, DAYTONA, and personally selected and purchased the rights to a photo of Whitney Houston's bathroom as it was at the time of her death. Numerous pieces of drug paraphernalia are present in the photograph.

Damon Elliott, the son of Dionne Warwick, spoke about his outrage to PEOPLE after finding out about the album artwork from his daughter.

"[She was] frantic. 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," Elliott said. "I was actually in shock because I'm in the music business."

He added, "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."

Elliott, who once collaborated with West on Keyshia Cole song thinks the decision is a part of the rash of questionable decisions and statements has made as of late.

"I've watched the trainwreck happening, but I didn't think he'd go this far in invading someone's family privacy," Elliott said.

Elliott is demanding answers from West, as he has yet to contacted Houston's family about the artwork, which he paid a reported $85,000 to use.

"I just want him to tell me why he did it," says Elliott. "What is the creative side of this? What's the point? It shows no creativity. ... What were you thinking? Did you think this through? And if you did, why did you do this? Because you're hurting people. It knocked the wind out of me last night. When someone passes, you try to mourn and move on and remember the good times."

He added, "Why are you going to pay $85,000 to bring something to the forefront?"

The only insight to why West used the photo, which was originally published by the National Enquirer, comes from Pusha T. The rapper, who also serves as president of West's GOOD Music record label, revealed that West wanted to change the artwork for DAYTONA at the spur of the moment in the middle fo the night.

"One a.m., my phone rings. No caller ID. [Kanye says,] 'Hey, yeah, I think we should change the artwork. And I like this other artwork. And this other artwork is 85 grand,'" Pusha T told The Angie Martinez Show. "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."

West then persisted by saying "This is what people need to see to go along with this music," and added that he would pay the fee himself.

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