Justin Bieber is no stranger to controversy, but he’s seemingly been laying low for the last few years and trying to rehab his image. Well, apparently he felt Kanye West was worth risking that. He spoke out on behalf of his pal on May 3, becoming one of the very few people to stand behind the rapper after he said that slavery “sounded like a choice” in a bizarre rant a few days earlier.

“Our job is to love, not to always agree,” Justin wrote in an Instagram Story. “I love you, Kanye!” The post immediately drew criticism from fans. “I started to develop just the tiniest bit of respect for you… then you go and support Kanye. You cancelled boi,” wrote one commenter on JB’s Instagram. People even started a hashtag on Twitter: #JustinBieberIsOverParty. Luckily, he also had some support. “You’re doing it right, don’t let anyone cloud your thoughts with hate, spread the love ??????,” wrote a fan.

kanye justin bieber, insta stories

Interestingly, there were reports that Justin was among the celebrities that unfollowed Yeezy on Twitter after he posted his original pro-Trump rant in April. He still doesn’t seem to follow Kanye on the platform, but fans are speculating that it might have been Scooter Braun — Justin’s longtime manager who also managed Kanye until the went their separate ways recently — who did the unfollowing. “It was probably Scooter that unfollowed Kanye from Justin’s twitter account, I mean Scoot has always supported Hillary and he HATES Trump, so makes sense,” wrote one fan. It honestly would make sense, because Justin still follows The Weeknd, who dated Selena Gomez while she and Justin were broken up.

While we didn’t expect Justin to actually speak out on Kanye’s behalf, we’re not surprised that he’s behind him. Justin is actually tight with the Kardashians, even being romantically linked to Kourtney Kardashian at one point. Kanye has also always supported Justin, even once tweeting, “What do you mean by Justin Bieber was my favorite song of 2015.” We kind of love this unwavering bromance and can’t wait for Kanye to respond.