Kanye West on Thursday gave a little explanation for his ‘White Lives Matter’ T-shirt – saying he was wearing it Controversial clothes At a fashion show in Paris because they “do”.
The 45-year-old rapper doubled down on his decision to wear the shirt in an hour-long session with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, where he also appeared shocked at the backlash the stunt had caused.
“I do certain things out of feeling,” West said. “I’m just channeling the energy, it feels right. He said of putting on the shirt, it’s just using your gut instinct, connection to God, and intelligence.”
West, who is now legally known by his first name Ye, said his father reached out to him about the shirt, which he found funny.
“I thought the shirt was a funny shirt. I thought the idea of wearing it was funny. And I said ‘Dad why do you think it’s funny?'” And he said, “Just a black guy saying the obvious.”
West was publicly criticized by many – including Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson and supermodel Gigi Hadid – for wearing the shirt at his fashion show on Monday. The other models at the show wore the same shirt.
“They’re looking for an explanation – as an artist you don’t have to provide an explanation but as a leader you do,” rapper All of the Lights told Carlson.
“So the answer to why I write ‘White Lives Matter’ on a T-shirt is that they do it,” West said.
In the wake of the controversy, West Contract with Adidas It was reportedly “under review”.
When Carlson asked rapper “Gold Digger” what he thought made the “White Lives Matter” statement controversial, West blamed a “mob” of “liberal Nazis” as well as the media, which he said were pushing white societal norms.
“Because the same people who stripped us of our identity and labeled us as a color told us what it means to be black and the slang you’re supposed to have,” he said.
He told a tale about his father, a former Black Panther, facing racial segregation growing up in Delaware as one of the only, if not the only, black families around. When his father attended black college, West said his father had told him by his black classmates that he was “talking to whites.”
He said the controversy over the shirt stemmed from a black girl saying she was “shocked” after seeing it.
“It’s like a black girl saying, ‘I was shocked to see a black man wearing something he’s not supposed to wear,'” he said.
Compare it to Quinten Tarantino’s 2012 movie “Django Unchained,” in which the character Samuel L.
“If we see ourselves as a people and not as a race, we will treat our people better,” West, who Call He later said the Black Lives Matter movement was a “scam” earlier this week.
“In America, we as blacks will look at each other lightly to see how good we are. But we speak English. There is nothing whiter than English. In fact we are not our mother tongue. So we judge each other on the basis of white target lines, not on Exactly what our culture is based on.”
West is no stranger to controversial wardrobe choices. He wore a MAGA hat while visiting Notorious visit With former President Donald Trump at the White House in 2018. The rapper also wore a Confederate flag jacket in 2013.
He told Carlson that his expressed support for President Donald Trump and other issues has alienated him from his friends and even put him at risk of violent attacks.
“My so-called friends/therapists around me would have told me if I said I loved Trump that my career was going to end. My life would be over. They said things like people get killed for wearing a hat like that. They threatened my life. They basically said I would be killed for wearing the hat,” West said.
“Someone called me last night and said that anybody wearing an important white shirt would be green lighted. That means they’d hit them if they wore it. I’m like, you know, well, he gave me the green light after that.”
More of West’s interview with Carlson is scheduled to air on his show tomorrow night.
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