- I feel like he just jumps from subject to subject very fast.
- Sometimes I wonder if this is just for publicity.
- (Kanye) Put Michael Jordan on a $20 bill.
- Damn.
♪ (punk rock intro) ♪
- (Kanye) When you hear about slavery for 400 years--
- (annoyed) Oh my god!
- Ugh! No, Mr. West.
- (Kanye) When you hear about slavery for 400 years,
for 400 years, that sound like a choice.
- (scoffing)
- (Kanye) ...that sound like a choice.
- I'm speechless.
- I could hear Kanye's career just plummeting in the background.
- (Kanye) It was there for 400 years and it's all of y'all?
- Oh my god.
- (Kanye) It's like we're mentally in prison.
I like the word "prison" because slavery--
- Okay, first of all, slavery was physical prison,
not just mental prison.
- (Kanye) Slavery goes too direct to the idea of Blacks.
It's like slavery holocaust.
- How is slavery a choice?
- (Kanye) So prison is something that unites us as one race.
- Yeah, I need to run that back.
Did he say it was a choice?
- It's almost like degrading people that are lower than him
because of where he's at in the industry.
- I feel like all of this is a publicity stunt at this point.
- I do understand what Kanye's saying, but the way that he said it,
it came out totally wrong.
- Maybe TMZ wants to make him look bad,
and there's some stuff that they cut out.
We're gonna judge off what we're given.
- (Van) I think what you're doing right now
is actually the absence of thought-- - Oh my god, yes.
Honestly, Van Lathan came through and saved the day.
- (Van) You're entitled to believe whatever you want,
but there is fact in real world, real life consequences
behind everything that you just said. - True.
- (Van) We have to deal with the marginalization
that's come from the 400 years of slavery
that you said, for our people, was a choice.
- Yeah, literally.
- (Kanye) Black people have a tendency to focus and march
when a white person kills a Black person
or wears a hat, but when it's 700 kids
being killed in Chicago, it's okay.
It's okay for Blacks to kill Blacks.
- No! Oh, oh, oh.
- (Van) Wait, wait, wait. - (Kanye) There's been more focus--
- Kanye, Kanye, stop.
- (Van) Yo-- - (Kanye) ...whites killing Blacks--
- Wow.
- This is crazy.
- I feel like he just jumps from subject to subject very fast.
- (Van) Kanye, come on over.
I just want to give him a hug.
- (laughing) Same.
- (Kanye) So if I come over there, you're not gonna fight me?
- (Van) I'm not gonna hit Kanye West on TMZ.
- (laughing)
- (Kanye) I'm sorry I hurt you, bro.
I love you, bro.
I'm sorry I hurt you with my words, bro.
I love you, bro. - That's crazy.
I didn't know how intense it got.
- It's not a choice.
Like, they were literally forced into it.
How is it a choice?
It's a very ignorant thing to say.
- When you have a platform that big, your words have an impact
on the world we live in today.
You have to be very conscious and aware
of what you say, and that right there was unacceptable.
- The fact that he's saying slavery is a choice,
it's sickening.
And I love Kanye and I believe deep down inside
that somewhere his opinion was with good intention,
but it did not come across that way.
- (FBE) This interview was prompted, at least partially,
due to Kanye's recent tweets.
- Yeah, I've been seeing those go pretty viral.
- (FBE) So we're gonna show you a few of those now.
- Okay.
- Oh, his Make America Great Again hat is signed.
- He doesn't agree with what he's doing,
but he definitely idolizes Donald Trump
for being a person that says whatever he believes in.
- It's the meaning behind what it means,
to get the hat signed, to have a meeting with Donald Trump,
especially after everything he's said against women,
against people of color, against everything,
and so I think that rubs off on Kanye West, too.
- Sometimes I wonder if this is just for publicity,
just to stay relevant.
And it's like, "I'm not really relevant right now,
so I gotta just do something to wow the world."
Or is this really Kanye?
- Kanye's kind of been like this. It's not anything new.
He's trolling because he's having an album
come out at the same time, you know?
- "If your friend jumps off the bridge,
you don't have to do the same.
Ye being ye is a fight for you to be you."
- "For people in my life, the idea of Trump
is pretty much a 50/50 split, but I don't tell
a Hillary supporter not to support Hillary.
I love Hillary too."
This just all seems so surface level.
- He's in the public eye, so, of course,
everything he does is gonna be looked at very closely.
At this point, I don't think he cares about what anybody else
has to say about it.
- Sometimes it can just be a publicity stunt,
but you never know with him.
- "My wife just called me and she wanted me to make
this clear to everybody.
I don't agree with everything Trump does.
I don't agree 100% with anyone but myself."
That is God complex right there.
- If you look at that, he said, "My wife just called me
and she wanted me to make it clear."
Like, Kim has to tell you that?
- If you are ignorant to everyone else's opinions
and thoughts and you think everything you say goes,
you got a lot of soul searching to figure out.
- I get that you have your opinion, but then again,
you're such a big person that people look up to you.
People are reading your tweets.
People's mindsets are being twisted to his point of view
on whatever he's saying.
- (FBE) In the midst of this, Kanye also released
an interview that he gave with Charlamagne
on his personal YouTube channel.
The full interview lasted nearly two hours.
- Oh my god. (laughing)
- (FBE) So we have just a few moments to show you.
- Okay.
- (Charlamagne) Did you go to therapy at all?
- (Kanye) Nah, I use the world as my therapy,
as my therapist. - Oh my god.
The world is your therapist? (scoffing)
- Respect, but sometimes you just need help
from a professional.
- (Kanye) Something inspired in the wrong context
can come off as-- I don't want to say crazy
because I also want to change the stigma of crazy,
and I want to change the stigma of mental health, period.
- He wants to change a lot of things.
- You want to change the stigma of mental health
by just not treating it?
- That was the moment that I wanted to use Bitcoin,
when I saw Harriet Tubman on a $20 bill.
- (Charlamagne) Why?
- (Kanye) It's like, when you just see all the slave movies,
it's like, why you gotta keep reminding us about slavery?
- Because it happened!
- Why do you gotta keep reminding people?
It's so it doesn't happen again, so it doesn't become
desensitized like Kanye West is now.
- (Kanye) Why don't you show us, put Michael Jordan on a $20 bill.
- Damn.
- (Kanye) Certain icons, it's just too far in the past,
and not relatable, and that's what makes them safe.
- Wait!
So we're just gonna completely disregard that entire era
of humans who still lived and made a difference?
We do need to be reminded of it so that crap doesn't happen again.
- They've impacted the world we live in today!
The rights he's exercising, this freedom of speech that he has,
is because of those icons!
- You met with Donald Trump.
- (Kanye) People-- first thing they say is racism.
They say, well, what makes George Bush more...
any more racist than Trump? - Yeah.
- (Kanye) Well, racism isn't the deal breaker for me.
If that was the case, I wouldn't live in America.
- Okay, at least he's acknowledging there's racism in America.
- (Kanye) See, Obama came to me before he ran for office
and he met with me and my mother. - I didn't know that.
- (Kanye) And it would have been good if this video didn't get out,
but you saw the video.
- (Charlamagne) Where he called you a jackass?
- (Kanye) Yeah. - Obama called him a jackass?
- I didn't even know about that.
Oh, wow.
- (Kanye) You know, he never called me to apologize.
The same person that sat down with me and my mom,
I think should have communicated to me directly.
- I'm shaking right now. I'm just so angry.
- (Kanye) This is complex... - (Charlamagne) Yeah.
- (Kanye) ...because these are voices.
I might be president one day.
- I think I was for that when he first joked about that,
but at this point, no thank you.
- Kanye seems to be like he doesn't do any self evaluation.
It's never Kanye's fault.
Everyone has a problem with Kanye.
- (Charlamagne) But about when you see, like--
you know there's people that's watching this right now
and they're like, "Yo, you know Donald Trump is getting
our family deported," and, you know, especially you right now,
you got this whole economic empowerment thing
going on, but you got a guy like him who's clearly trying
to marginalize and oppress people, people that look like you.
- I feel like it's so hard for such an egotistical person
to place any value in any other person.
How do you do that?
You have so much value for yourself.
How do you share it with other people?
- (Kanye) The fact that he won, it proves something.
- It proves that America's still racist.
- (Kanye) Remember when I said I was gonna run for president?
I got people that was close to me, friends of mine,
making jokes, making memes... - Right.
- (Kanye) ...talking [bleep] and now it's like,
oh, that was proven that that could have happened.
- That's true, though.
I never thought that Donald Trump would actually become president,
but look where we are now.
- (Kanye) I like that it showed you that anything is possible.
So what's the 'Ye version?
The 'Ye version would be the Trump campaign
and maybe Bernie Sanders' principles.
- I think-- is he just looking at Donald Trump now
as like, oh, if he can do it, so can I?
- I can actually get down with that.
That makes the most sense.
Evidently, the Trump campaign was very effective.
- I get it, why he likes Trump now.
Trump is Kanye's representation of if Trump can do it, why can't I?
- Personally, I never thought Donald Trump was
gonna become president, and the fact that he is right now,
that's something where I'm like, yeah, anything is kind of possible.
Even though I don't agree with it, I see where he's coming from.
- (FBE) So Kanye's made a number of public statements
in the last few weeks, many of which we are not able
to show you due to time constraints, but the pieces that we showed you,
and from what you've seen on your own,
how has his recent behavior affected your opinion
of Kanye, if at all?
- Um, as a musician, I'll always respect him.
You can't really judge somebody if you really don't know
the place that they're coming from.
- I used to be a pretty big Kanye fan because of how real
and how intelligent he was, but then again,
I don't know why he's so hung up on Trump.
- When this first started off, I was like, this is
totally a publicity stunt.
There's some things that Kanye did say,
and I don't agree with.
Definitely, this did change my point of view on Kanye.
- It's really a shame because there's no denying
that he is talented.
I just can't get behind someone who has no grasp on reality.
- The level that he took it to is what's crazy.
It's like the statements he's making, and the belief behind the statements.
I'm wondering when did Kanye fall off?
- It makes me see him as more of a free thinker,
which is good, but at the same time, is he thinking free enough
to the point where it is all love?
What are the right intentions, you know?
- It's angered me a little bit just because
of the sole purpose of how he's using his voice.
Dude, just use your voice to better humanity, you know?
If you're gonna say you support Donald Trump, say why.
- (FBE) Well, with many of Kanye's more controversial points,
he goes on to clarify either what his intention was
or why he's feeling the way he is.
For example, he made that slavery comment, right,
and then he later clarified, saying the reason
I brought up the 400 years point is because
we can't be mentally imprisoned for another 400 years.
We need free thought now.
- There's a difference between free thought,
and I think what he's trying to say is forgiveness,
and you don't forgive slavery, and you don't ever try to forget that.
- (FBE) So many people have continued to weigh in
on his comments without taking into consideration
what he said about them afterwards.
Do you think that people need to get full context
when they're talking about these statements,
or is it up to someone with the audience of Kanye
to make sure he's representing his full opinion each time
he makes a statement that he knows could be controversial?
- I feel that nobody should jump the gun
on what he has to say because, you know,
words can really get taken out of context.
- Unfortunately, I think the fault lies on Kanye.
When you know you're at a position of power like that
and you know how manipulative the media is,
I think it's very important that you say everything
that you need to say in one sentence.
- I think that would be smart for him to definitely elaborate all at once.
Elaboration would just be good for him in general,
but I think he's going for shock factor still.
- If you want to convey your message in a way that you mean it.
Not everyone knows what you're talking about
and if you make general statements, context just is necessary.
- (FBE) All right, and finally, there are many people right now
who are weighing in on everything that Kanye
has been doing in the last few weeks.
Speaking as the next generation, how do you view celebrities doing this
and the attention the public gives them due to social media
being such a dominating force in life?
- It's actually all your choice.
You don't have to care what a celebrity says.
- Celebrities definitely do have this giant platform
to talk about things and I think that they should,
but, you know, everyone is still a person
at the end of the day, with their own opinions,
so it's hard to really tear people down for their opinions.
- This is where I get scared for the future generations to come
because social media has overtaken Hollywood.
The damage is done.
- The more technology is getting pushed onto us,
the more it's gonna be involved in our everyday lives
more and more and more and more,
which means we're gonna have to pay attention
to the news and celebrities and everything that they're doing.
- When you give attention to these types of things,
you're fueling it.
We have to give it less attention, especially if we don't agree with it.
- When you have such a big platform like that,
and people look up to you, you're literally molding
the next generation.
But at the end of the day, he's a person
with a bunch of followers and his words have big consequences.
- What you say could be held as a young person's memory
in their brain, literally for their entire lives.
We only have one shot at making this a great life,
so if we all just worked together and be considerate
and compassionate towards one another, we would have so much more peace.
- Thanks for watching this episode of Teens React
and shout-out to Simon Stadin.
- Comment down below what you'd like to see
on the next episode of Teens React and shout-out to Cathy P.
- If you liked this episode and want to see more,
subscribe and hit the bell.
- Bye!
- Hey, guys, Ethan here from FBE.
Thank you so much for watching this episodes of Teens React,
and if you just can't get enough FBE, be sure to follow us on Twitter.
You can follow us at FBE and the links
will be in the description. Bye, guys.