Man, back in 2013 it was like: "Alright, Yeezy Season approaching!" And now it's
like: "Oh no... Yeezy season approaching..." You're watching What's Trending, I'm
Jonathan Harris. Subscribe for more trending and social media news every day.
Kanye West continues to stir controversy on his latest media blitz / speaking
tour / album promotion / who knows... This time he went on TMZ for a wide-ranging
interview that began with an admission about his 2016 opioid addiction and
ended with a passionate argument from TMZ staffer, Van Lathan. Early on Kanye
stands up and addresses the TMZ employees who I'm honestly shocked were
able to keep working through all this.
Hey, everyone listen to this please.
Two days before I was in the hospital I was on opioids. I was addicted to opioids.
I had plastic surgery because I was trying to look good for y'all. And this
idea that the media had previously influenced his thoughts and actions came
up a lot. We are drugged out. We are following
other people's opinions. We are controlled by the media and today it all
changes. You know, very few of us will ever know what it's like to have Kanye's
level of celebrity, to know what it's like to have TMZ following you around, to
have cameras on you every day, but I also haven't sought out that kind of fame or
intentionally married into one of the most photographed families in the world.
Whether he sought it out or not, it definitely seems like Kanye's focus on
media attention really influenced him during that time. But regardless of what
happened in 2016, nothing could have prepared us for the kinds of ideas Kanye
would be putting out there in 2018. You hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400
years? That sound like a choice. Like you was there for 400 years and it's all of
y'all. Yeah, this was the big soundbite that shook everyone so much yesterday.
Like this is the same person who said George Bush doesn't care about black
people on national television after Hurricane Katrina. And in just the last
few weeks he's back on Twitter, he's wearing a MAGA hat, he's saying he loves
Trump, and now he thinks that slavery was a choice? Now he has since clarified that
on Twitter in what has become a daily ritual of
Kanye insane quote clarification. He wrote: "To make myself clear. Of course I
know that slaves did not get shackled and put on a boat by free will.
My point is for us to have stayed in that position even though the numbers
were on our side means that we were mentally enslaved." Kanye has always been
so good at expressing himself through music and yet he's always had so much
trouble saying what he wants to say in words. If I'm interpreting Kanye
correctly, and that's a big if, he seems to be suggesting that black people have
embraced this idea of victimhood over the centuries, and until they can break
free of this idea that they're perpetually victims, they're always going
to be. It's the same idea that conservative Candace Owens has talked
about on Fox News and elsewhere... which is likely what inspired Kanye to tweet out
that he loves the way she thinks, which is one of the tweets that inspired this
whole Kanye, MAGA, Trump thing in the first place. Okay, but this narrative that
Owens and now Kanye are putting out there is one that fundamentally ignores
the challenges that black Americans faced since they were first brought here
and still face today. Now as you might have figured out by this point in the
video, I am NOT black so I'm going to let those who have lived to this fight their
whole lives respond to Kanye's slavery comment.
Starting with TMZ's Van Lathan. While you are making music and being an artist and
living the life that you've earned by being a genius, the rest of us in society
have to deal with these threats to our lives. We have to deal with the
marginalization that has come from the 400 years of slavery that you said
for our people was a choice. He really hits this home for me. It's not a stretch
to say that Kanye's experiences since he's achieved wealth and fame over a
decade ago are not those of the broader black community. It's legitimately a
privilege that he has to not know what it's like to live as a slave, to know
that he's not going to get kicked out of a Starbucks, to know that he's not gonna
get pulled over by a white cop because he's surrounded by security every day.
That's not to say Kanye didn't earn those things. I think he's a legit
musical genius, but along the way he got separated from those experiences that
have shaped the perspective of most young black men in this country. Van
Lathan talks more about his feelings in an emergency episode of his podcast The
Red Pill podcast titled Wake Up, Mr. West and the link for that podcast is in the
description. I also want to briefly read a thread from historian, author and
professor Blair LM Kelley who wrote on Twitter: "I've had young men in my courses
say they never would have enslaved me. People aren't aware of the alienation of
people ripped from their homes, abused walked hundreds of miles across Africa,
sometimes so far they ceased understanding the language spoken around
them... slavery wasn't their choice at any step. We know that freedom was always
their choice, resistance was their choice when they couldn't escape. Denigrating
their lives at this point for attention and spare change is such an
embarrassment." Kelley wrote a book about this called Right to Ride about how
black Americans resisted Jim Crow and the laws of segregation every step of
the way. So there's that. I look forward to hearing some of you call me a Soy Boy
in the comments in a few hours and guess what? We haven't even talked about the
nearly two hour long interview with Charlamagne the God where Kanye tries to
explain his thought process during his mental breakdown (which he calls his
breakthrough) and today. Stop strategizing so much. Stop setting so many plays. Stop
doing things only based in fear, like the universe will assist you when you are
acting in love. Maybe this is why Kanye has such an affinity for Trump. He
appreciates someone who speaks from the gut without really thinking about
whether or not what he's saying is true or reflective of history or will have
consequences for the future. It's that kind of belief process that allows him
to say that he doesn't agree with half the sh*t Trump does but still wants to wear
the MAGA hat. It's like what is the half of the sh*t that Kanye doesn't agree
with? And of those things do none of them offend him to the point where he won't
wear the hat? And on top of all that, Kanye's supposed to be on Infowars soon,
and I'm recording this before that happens (thank God). All right you guys know what
my perspective is, now I want to hear yours. I still think it's really
dangerous for Kanye to fuel people who will continue to marginalize communities
in the US. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below and for more
stories like this head over to whatstrending.com.