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Kanye West Apologizes For Slavery Comments, Explains Trump Support
Yeezy apologized to “people who felt let down” by his callous commentary.
Months after implying that slavery was a choice, Kanye West has apologized for his inflammatory statements.
Speaking to TMZ in May, West initially remarked, “When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years? That sounds like a choice. You was there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all.”
His comments sparked a slew of backlash on social media, which only grew amid West’s repeated attempts to clarify his meaning via Twitter. The 41-year-old rapper sat down with Chicago radio station 107.5 WGCI for a revealing interview on Wednesday, where he once again addressed his statements, as well as his support for President Donald Trump.
“I don’t know if I properly apologized for how that slave comment made people feel, so I want to take this moment right now and say that I’m sorry for hurting — I’m sorry for the one-two effect of the MAGA hat into the slave comment,” West said, referencing the controversy that erupted around him yet again after he tweeted a photo of a signed “Make America Great Again” hat in April.
“I’m sorry to people who felt let down by that moment,” he continued. “And also I appreciate you guys giving me the opportunity to talk to you about the way I was thinking and what I was going through and what led me to that and I just appreciate you guys holding on to me as a family.”
“I said 400 years — it sounds like a choice to me, to Kanye West, not being a historian,” West also said during the lengthy interview. He added, “To me, when I hear about an entire group of powerful people being held captive for 400 years, it sounds like a choice to the spirit of Kanye West, which I think is aligned with the spirit of Harriet Tubman, which I think is aligned with the spirit of Nat Turner, which in my non-historical opinion, I feel that these are examples from the past of people who felt similar to that, even if it was worded incorrectly in the white man’s tongue.”
“Maybe I could have danced or I could have spoken Swahili, spoken the actual language, because even the fact that we’re having to have this conversation in English is a form of slavery,” he continued. “It’s not even our tongue. It’s not even our language, bro.”
During the emotional sit-down, in which West was even brought to tears, the artist also explained why he believes Trump cares about black people.
TV host Jimmy Kimmel posed a similar question to West earlier this month, when the rapper sat down for an interview on "Live!"
Unusually, West appeared to be at a loss for words, and the show cut to commercial.
He later claimed he was not given enough time to formulate a response.
By Wednesday, he'd found the words.
“I feel that [Trump] cares about the way black people feel about him,” he said. “He would like for black people to like him like they did when he was cool in the rap songs.
“He’s got an ego like all the rest of us and he doesn’t — he wants to be the greatest president, and he knows that he can’t be the greatest president without the acceptance of the black community.”
West touched on a variety of topics in the wide-ranging WGCI interview, including public perception of the Kardashian family and the explosive hip hop feud between Drake and Pusha T.
[Photo: Kanye West attends the Love Ball Naked Heart Foundation Photo Call as part of Paris Fashion Week Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2016-2017 on July 6, 2016 in Paris, France. By Dominique Charriau/WireImage via Getty Images]
