Kanye West
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Charlamagne the God appeared on The Brilliant Idiots podcast this week, where he shared an interesting, NSFW conversation he had with Kanye West.
It all started when Charlamagne brought up Ye’s controversial interview with the Drink Champs podcast — which has since been taken down — where the rapper said that the radio host was telling people that Kim Kardashian was dating comedian Pete Davidson because “he has a bigger d—.”
Charlamagne tha God explained that Ye’s comments originated from a phone call between the two last year, when the Yeezy founder’s ex-wife began dating the former SNL comedian. Charlamagne said that Ye tried to “get me on board to s— on someone he knows is my friend, Pete Davidson.”
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“My wife is out here f—ing a white boy with a 10-inch penis! And you won’t help me!” Charlamagne recalled Ye shouting on the phone call. “You’re telling me that’s your friend? When you’re supposed to be culture?”
Ye repeatedly shared attacks on Davidson — whom he called “Skete” — throughout the actor’s nine-month relationship with Kardashian. West wrote that Davidson “will get my kids mom hooked on drugs He’s in rehab every 2 months” and asked SNL writer Dave Sirus to “please help write some more culturally irrelevant jokes for SKETE” while referencing Davidson’s tattoo of Hillary Clinton, which Ye had posted with the caption, “Tramp Stamp. Pete the tramp. Here’s the stamp.”
West also shared two music videos for “Eazy,” in which Davidson is depicted being buried alive and beaten violently. In January, Charlamagne called out “Eazy” for being “corny” with the lyric, “God saved me from that crash/Just so I can beat Pete Davidson’s a–.”
Kanye West sat down for an interview with Piers Morgan on Wednesday (Oct. 19), where the rapper didn’t show any remorse for his string of anti-Semitic comments throughout the past few weeks.
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When asked if he was “sorry” that he said he was going to go “death con 3” on Jewish people, Ye simply replied, “Absolutely not.”
Morgan then quipped, “You should be,” to which Ye repeated, “Absolutely not.”
The English broadcaster continued to push back against West, explaining that his comments are as “racist as anything you’ve been through,” while the Yeezy founder is seen laughing. “Racism is racism, and you know that, don’t you?” Morgan asks.
“Yeah, obviously. That’s why I said it,” Ye replied. “I fought fire with fire. I’m not here to get hosed down. It’s a different type of freedom fighter.”
Later on in the interview, Ye proceeded to give a somewhat feeble apology to “the families of the people who had nothing to do” with his “trauma,” adding that “hurt people hurt people.”
Ye went on an aggressive anti-Semitic rant on social media earlier this month. After posting that he was about to go “death con 3” on “Jewish people” over the weekend of Oct. 8, he was temporarily restricted from using both Instagram and Twitter.
In a Drink Champs interview last week, Ye declared offensive remarks, blaming the murder of George Floyd on fentanyl and claiming that Jewish people are “[owning] the Black voice” through Black people wearing a Ralph Lauren shirt, “being signed to a record label, or having a Jewish manager, or being signed to a Jewish basketball team, or doing a movie on a Jewish platform like Disney.”
Lawyers for George Floyd’s family say they’re getting ready to file a lawsuit against Ye, the artist and entrepreneur formally known as Kanye West, seeking $250 million in damages over his recent claims that Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose rather than at the hands of police.
Attorneys for Roxie Washington, the mother of Floyd’s daughter, said Tuesday (Oct. 18) that they plan to sue West for harassment, misappropriation, defamation and infliction of emotional distress over the rapper’s controversial statements, which he made during an appearance on the Drink Champs podcast.
“George Floyd’s daughter is being retraumatized by Kanye West’s comments and he’s creating an unsafe and unhealthy environment for her,” said Nuru Witherspoon, Washington’s attorney. “Kanye’s comments are a repugnant attempt to discount George Floyd’s life and to profit from his inhumane death. We will hold Mr. West accountable for his flagrant remarks against Mr. Floyd’s legacy.”
The case will be filed by Washington on behalf of her daughter with Floyd, the attorneys said. It’s unclear when or where the case will be filed. The attorneys said they would seek $250 million in damages, but such claims have little bearing on what is actually awarded at the end of a successful lawsuit.
Washington is represented by Witherspoon’s firm, as well as another firm called Dixon & Dixon.
West could not be reached for comment on the looming litigation.
Floyd, whose May 2020 death sparked national demonstrations against police brutality, was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on his neck for nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down on the street, suffocating him to death. Chauvin was later convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
But in an interview released this weekend by Drink Champs, a popular podcast hosted on Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Revolt media channel, West said he saw things differently: “They hit him with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.”
Drink Champs host N.O.R.E., who conducted the interview, has already apologized for the episode, and the episode has been pulled from both Revolt’s site and its YouTube channel.
Multiple cases against Kanye are now potentially in the works by Floyd’s family. On Sunday, civil rights attorney Lee Merritt posted to Twitter that he had been alerted to the comments Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, and was considering how to bring a case against West.
“While one cannot defame the dead, the family of #GeorgeFloyd is considering suit for Kanye’s false statements about the manner of his death,” Merritt tweeted. “Claiming Floyd died from fentanyl not the brutality established criminally and civilly undermines & diminishes the Floyd family’s fight.”
West’s comments about Floyd came amid a storm of controversy for the once-beloved rapper. First he wore a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt to a show at Paris Fashion Week, then he was banned from both Instagram and Twitter over a string of anti-Semitic statements. Later in the same Drink Champs interview, he made more attacks on Jewish people, claiming they control the media and blaming “Jewish Zionists” for coverage about his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her former boyfriend Pete Davidson.
At this point, who would book Kanye West – especially to sit down with an interviewer who doesn’t generally challenge his guests?
On Oct. 7, West, now known as Ye, tweeted that he would go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” Days later, Vice reported on unaired footage from the rapper’s Tucker Carlson interview, in which he made a series of bizarre and anti-Semitic comments, on how he wants to create “kinetic energy communities” and would rather his children celebrate Hanukkah, since “at least it will come with some financial engineering.” Then an episode of The Shop was canceled because West used the interview to “reiterate more hate speech and extremely dangerous stereotypes,” according to the CEO of the company behind the show.
After all this, West was booked to appear on the Oct. 15 episode of the podcast Drink Champs, which is shown on Revolt, the cable television and online media company founded by Sean “Diddy” Combs. (It was preceded by a disclaimer saying it does not reflect his views.) And guess what? West ranted about the “Jewish media,” called Planned Parenthood “our Holocaust Museum,” and said Jewish lawyers made so much money because they would divorce people when Catholics wouldn’t. He also falsely blamed George Floyd’s death on fentanyl, rather than on the police officer who murdered him. As West ranted, N.O.R.E., the show’s host — who has since apologized — basically just sat there, murmuring “mmm” and, occasionally, “hmm-mmm.”
Drink Champs is supposed to be informal, but a better interviewer would have at least pointed out that Drake, who West said in the interview was “the greatest rapper ever,” is Jewish himself.’Revolt pulled the show offline yesterday afternoon – the company has not issued any statement or commented to Billboard on why it did so – although it’s easily available on YouTube, which should take it down as well. It’s worth asking why it was shown in the first place. One clue: N.O.R.E. tweeted that “my Ye interview got more views then (sic) football haha!!!” Except this isn’t funny. At a time when media companies are being more careful about hate speech – a good thing in my view – why does there seem to be an exception for anti-Semitism?
It’s easy to dismiss West’s interview — along with his latest, with Chris Cuomo — as the latest chapter in the very public breakdown of an incredibly talented musician, which is upsetting to see. What’s more disturbing is that anyone could have thought it was OK to show this. N.O.R.E. apologized on Breakfast Club, and said there were “four Jewish people in the room” who showed an “understanding where Kanye was coming from.”
The disclaimer that ran before Drink Champs says the show does “not reflect the views or opinions” of Combs or Revolt. Fair enough. Presumably Combs also didn’t agree with the July 4, 2020 speech by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, whom Facebook banned in 2019, along with Alex Jones and some right-wing figures, for engaging in hate speech. (Revolt hasn’t shown any of his speeches since then.) Weeks later, Combs tweeted a job offer to Nick Cannon, who had just lost his deal with ViacomCBS after a podcast interview with former Public Enemy “Minister of Information” Professor Griff that trafficked in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Like West, Cannon said he couldn’t be anti-Semitic because Black people are “the true Hebrews.”
Cannon apologized, and good for him. Revolt hasn’t. After Cannon sat down with a rabbi to talk about anti-Semitism, Jay Electronica called the rabbi a “coward” and challenged him to debate Farrakhan. Neither Combs nor Jay Electronica, who sampled Farrakhan on his debut album and got an 8.4 from Pitchfork, seems to have faced any consequences.
Revolt bills itself as “the unapologetic, authoritative voice of Hip Hop culture,” which is important and valuable. But that doesn’t mean guests should be allowed to engage in anti-Semitic or other conspiracy theories without being challenged. One of the frightening things about West’s rants is how much right-wingers with a history of racism seem to love them. This episode of Drink Champs was anti-Semitic and disrespectful to the memory of George Floyd, whose family is said to be considering a lawsuit against West. Revolt needs to apologize, to both Floyd’s family and the Jewish community, and make clear that it has no tolerance for anti-Semitism — and other music and media companies should do the same.
For the Record is a regular column from deputy editorial director Robert Levine analyzing news and trends in the music industry. Find more here.
After N.O.R.E.’s apology post-Drink Champs interview with Kanye West, the video itself has been removed from YouTube and Revolt.
Following the interview between N.O.R.E. and Ye, backlash ensued, with viewers pointing out the controversial rapper’s comments regarding the murder of George Floyd, and Jewish people “[owning] the Black voice” through Black people wearing a Ralph Lauren shirt, “being signed to a record label, or having a Jewish manager, or being signed to a Jewish basketball team, or doing a movie on a Jewish platform like Disney.” He went on to add, “I respect what the Jewish people have done, and how they brought their people together.”
The conversation lasted nearly 45-minutes and came on the heels of Ye’s attendance at Candace Owens’ premiere of her film, The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM. The premiere seemingly inspired his comments regarding Floyd, whose death was ruled a homicide, contrary to Ye’s beliefs.
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In his apology, which came via a conversation with Hot97’s Peter Rosenberg, N.O.R.E. said, “Well the logic was the same way you guys are giving me the platform. I think you guys have love for me, you guys have respect for me, and you guys think that I should have a say. I have a relationship with Ye. When he was going through a lot of the things he was going through, he would call me and he would actually listen to me and take my advice. So I felt I could control the situation. I felt that I could control the interview, and learned early on that I didn’t.”
The Drink Champs host also identified himself as a “journalist” adding, “As a journalist, you’re really not supposed to have an opinion…you’re supposed to let people talk. And my biggest critique on Drink Champs is ‘N.O.R.E., you always cut people off!’ And this is the one time I didn’t cut the people, didn’t cut ’em off, and everyone’s mad.”
Revolt did not respond to requests for comment. Watch N.O.R.E.’s full apology below.