Kanye West is spending some much-needed time in Chicago this week.
While there, he stopped by the WGCI Chicago radio station for an interview. You already know Chicago doesn’t play — so they didn’t hesitate to hold him accountable for those infamous ‘slavery is a choice’ comments.
Though Kanye tried to explain what he meant in his ‘non-historical opinion,’ he ultimately apologized for his words and the hurt he caused.
“It wasn’t the actual comment. I said “400 years, it sounds like a choice — to me. To Kanye West. Not being a historian … 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. In my non-historical opinion, I feel that these are examples of people from the past 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 — because even the fact that we’re having to have this conversation in English is a form of slavery. It’s not even our language, bro.”
He continued:
The thing about being called crazy, the biggest stigma that has to be broken is that you instantly get written off. But you might be the only one who knows what they’re talking about. Also what I wanna say to everyone listening right now—I have never really approached or addressed the slavery comment fully. And it’s not something for me to overly intellectualize. This is something about the fact that it hurt people’s feelings and the way that I presented that piece of information. I could present in a way more calm way, but I was ramped up. And I apologize. That happens sometimes when people are—I’m not blaming mental health, but I’m explaining mental health.
I don’t know if I properly apologized for how the slavery comment made people feel. I’m sorry for the one-two effect of the MAGA hat into the slave comment, and I’m sorry for people that felt let down by that moment. And I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to talk to you about the way I was thinking and what I was going through.
Kanye also addressed the question he didn’t answer on Jimmy Kimmel.
When asked if he feels Donald Trump cares about Black people, after a bit of a pause Kanye responded:
“I feel that he cares about the way black people feel about him, and he would like for black people to like him like they did when he was cool in the rap songs and all this. And he will do the things that are necessary to make that happen because he’s got an ego like all the rest of us, and 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. So it’s something he’s gonna work towards, but we’re gonna have to speak to him.”
When asked specifically about his support for Donald Trump, Kanye elaborated on what he feels Trump represents in America.
“In my opinion, politicians are politicians. It’s not one that’s particularly better than the other. I understand on Black people — since we wanna speak as separation because we’re actually one race. The human race. Race was a man-made construct that was invented…understand that we had eight years where we loved the idea of a Black president. Now it seems like we took a step backwards to where we only saw white presidents our entire life. It’s to where we’d rather have a female president than to see another white man become president again — I understand and I feel that — I just don’t agree with it.
Let’s act like America is our girlfriend for a second. Trump being in office is like…if you broke up with your girlfriend and she fell out with her girlfriend, and you get on the phone with her and she lets you know everything your girlfriend has been doing the whole time.
Like the detention centers, that’s been happening through a lot of different presidential eras. Now we’re seeing it. I’m a very transparent person. I like transparency. I like exposure. I wanna be exposed to the information so I can make my decisions. And I knew that this rogue personality was gonna allow me to see and understand — and allow my brothers to understand — what we were dealing with. All the marches, people fighting, people standing up, people having conversations about politics our well being — i knew this was gonna happen if he got into office….
That’s the whole funny thing, you talk about “Get Out,” ‘woke,’ and the flash of light or something. [Trump’s] a flash of light to us an entire community to see things we weren’t seeing when Obama was in office — that were still happening. It’s like we as a collective wasn’t woke. Now everybody’s woke.”
“The thing is, I support everyone. I am in support. I support Bernie Sanders. I love Bernie Sanders. I support Hillary. I love Hillary. I support Obama. I cried when he one. My mom was passed, I said ‘Mama, we did it.'”
Check out the clips below.
