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Kanye West’s Return to TMZ Live Went Exactly How You Would Expect

kanye west tmz live interview

Kanye West made his return to TMZ Live yesterday, in a video posted in full online this afternoon, months after his “slavery was a choice” comments from his first appearance earlier in the year. The conversation was a lot more chill in mannerism only this time around, as Kanye continued to promote his brand of “positive energy” and under-researched historical knowledge. He sat with TMZ’s Harvey Levin at a picnic table for some reason, donning his remade MAGA hat, beginning the chat by clarifying what he meant about being “bullied” on Saturday Night Live. “The bullying came from… just people around me, close to me, in my circle, telling me why I shouldn’t be wearing the hat,” West said. “It put my energy into a reactionary place.”

The conversation only gets worse from there, as the question around his tweet on the 13th amendment being abolished was brought up by Levin. West clarified what he meant—sort of. He first goes into a digression about how time isn’t real, and that it’s an idea used to control people before reading some facts about the 13th amendment off his phone which he said were sent to him by the rapper GLC who, as Kanye says, “puts a lot energy into understanding historical facts.” He eventually got around to saying that he meant to say that we should “amend” the 13th amendment as opposed to abolishing it, focusing on the aspect of the 13th amendment that allows prison labor to be akin to slave labor.

Later in the interview, he talked about moving back to Chicago in hopes “applying all of his brilliance” to the city and his desire to improve Chicago’s public schools and the rate of violence on the city’s South Side. He also talked about flying cars again. He also shared his love for Dan Gilbert, noted owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team and of private prisons, which is presumably the best thing to happen to Gilbert since LeBron James left again.

As things turned back to his MAGA hat and Donald Trump, Kanye continued to stand firm in his support for Trump while also promoting the idea of his own presidential run in 2024. To Levin’s accusations of racism by the president, Kanye went on a diatribe about how hip-hop is all about making negative things positive. “For someone to grow, they need to know that they got love,” Kanye says of the president’s remarks towards African-Americans. “There’s no way to start a dialog with ‘fuck you.’ That’s not how you lead with love.” He later claimed, in a clip put online yesterday, that he’s been calling Colin Kaepernick, trying to reach him in order to bring him to the White House, in order to make things right between him and the president.

He also talked about delaying his new album Yandhi until November so he could record in, his words, “what is known as Africa,” and so he could let the power and nature of the continent imbue the album. He also talked about not being held down by our human forms and no longer being imprisoned by his psychiatric medication, before leading the entire TMZ staff into a “We Love Harvey” chant for Levin. But just when you thought he was going to leave without saying anything too outlandish, he ended things by fighting against the idea of black people being Democrats by falsely stating that the Democrat-supported welfare system was put in place to undermine masculinity in the black home. So there’s that.

Watch the full interview below if you dare.

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