Kanye West news: YouTube removes ‘Drink Champs’ interview as Elon Musk deletes tweet on Twitter team-up

Kanye West has now claimed that he “doesn’t believe” in the term antisemitism.

In the past week, the 45-year-old rapper has been widely condemned for making a number of controversial comments on social media and in interviews.

On Monday, during an interview with News Nation’s Chris Cuomo, Ye addressed his plan to purchase right-wing social media network Parler.

When Cuomo asked Ye whether the antisemitic comments that he made violated Parler’s community guidelines, the Donda rapper responded: “I don’t like the term ‘antisemitic’.

“It’s been a term that’s allowed people, specifically in my industry, to get away with murder – sometimes literally – and get away with robbing and doing bad [to] people.”

Keep reading the full report from Peony Hirwani here.

Kanye West has always been known for being provocative and unpredictable, but few could’ve guessed how quickly his stance on George Floyd changed in recent years.

Last week, the rapper and fashion designer, now known as Ye, appeared on the Drink Champs podcast, where he made numerous anti-Semitic remarks and cited a documentary from right-wing figure Candace Owens as proof that the police hadn’t actually killed George Floyd.

“The guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that,” West said, even though both video evidence plainly shows, and medical officials and courts later confirmed, that police were the ones who killed Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020.

Donald Trump and rapper Kanye West spoke on Monday as the pair face similar but unrelated accusations of antisemitism for their recent remarks about Jewish people.

The two spoke over the phone after it was announced that the Grammy-winning yet troubled and controversial artist would purchase Parler, a right-wing social media site, according to Politico, which cited a source familiar with the call.

Mr West apparently initiated the conversation and the two plan to meet in person for dinner in the near future, according to the news outlet. The rapper was banned from Twitter and Instagram after threatening to go “death con 3 on Jewish people” and alleging that Jews are behind his wife Kim Kardashian’s choice to divorce him.

John Bowden has more from Washington.

The controversial interview that aired on Saturday night’s Drink Champs has been removed from both YouTube and the Revolt franchise’s website, Rolling Stone first reported.

Host of the YouTube show, N.O.R.E., had appeared on The Breakfast Club on Monday, hours before the interview was pulled, to express his regret for not editing out the sections of the interview which he later admitted were hurtful to people.

“We actually posted it and saw that this was the wrong edit, took it down, and then it got reposted again with those same comments that was there,” N.O.R.E said on the Monday morning radio show while issuing an apology for the contents of the interview where West issued more antisemitic comments and spread misinformation about the death of George Floyd.

“So it was a mistake on our behalf, on our team’s behalf. Because we don’t edit nothing… but we will start from here on out, because we understand that’s people that’s hurt out there.”

The controversial Ye interview on Drink Champs has since been made private on YouTube and the podcast version of the conversation were removed from both Spotify and Apple Music earlier in the day.

Tesla billionaire and potential Twitter owner Elon Musk appeared to be teasing a possible business collaboration with Kanye West, despite the rapper’s recent antisemitic rants and attacks on George Floyd.

On Monday, Mr Musk shared an image playing on the Dragon Ball anime series, where two characters can fuse together into a more powerful being by touching fingers. In his version, the Tesla founder is edited onto one character, along with a Twitter logo, while West’s face is superimposed onto another, with the logo of Parler, the right-wing social network West recently purchased.

“Fun times ahead!” Mr Musk wrote below the image.

Hours later, that same tweet was deleted without comment from the Tesla chief executive.

Josh Marcus has more here.

The CEO of Parler has sought to defend Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, from antisemitisim complaints following news of his takeover bid of the right wing social media app.

Speaking with Fox Business on Monday, Parler CEO George Farmer said “censorship in any format is never a good thing” after Mr West was locked out of his Twitter and Instagram accounts over statements deemed antisemitic. He added that the rapper was also a “victim of cancellation”, per Mediaite.

“The tweet that he put out last week, as far as I could understand it, was an incorrect reference to defcon,” Mr Farmer told Maria Bartiromo of the rapper’s apparent reference to DEFCON, a level of US defence department readiness. “He’s obviously willing to have conversations that plenty of people want to have and I think that he’s trying to engage in the free speech environment”.

“Specific comments about his personal opinions, obviously I can’t comment because I’m not him, but I would like to say that he’s now in a place where he’s fallen victim to the cancellation narrative,” Mr Farmer continued. “Whether or not what he said offended some people, of course, is up for conversation,” he said.

Gino Spocchia has the full story.

Donald Trump, who once posed for photos with Kanye West at Trump Tower after the rapper embraced the then-president-elect and invited him to the White House while in office, is privately rebuking the artist’s recent public tirades against Jewish people, according to Rolling Stone.

The former president has reportedly confided in multiple people close to him that the rapper’s social media blasts, in which he said he planned to go “death con 3” on “JEWISH PEOPLE,” have led him to believe that West is acting too “crazy” and he should seek out professional “help”.

Two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to Rolling Stone that the one-term president is intentionally avoiding commenting on the scandals that have erupted since the rapper began railing against the Jewish community.

Oliver O’Connell has the full report.

Kanye West has now claimed that he “doesn’t believe” in the term antisemitism.

On Monday (17 October), during an interview with News Nation’s Chris Cuomo, Ye addressed his plan to purchase right-wing social media network Parler.

When Cuomo asked Ye whether the antisemitic comments that he made violated Parler’s community guidelines, the Donda rapper responded: “I don’t like the term ‘antisemitic’.

“It’s been a term that’s allowed people, specifically in my industry, to get away with murder – sometimes literally – and get away with robbing and doing bad [to] people.”

Kanye West is buying Parler, the right-wing social media app that’s been banned by Apple and Google multiple times and was used to coordinate the January 6th riots.

The rapper, known as Ye, joined the platform today.

“In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” said Mr West.

More details from Adam Smith.

Rapper and musician Kanye West (aka Ye) posted an antisemitic threat of violence against Jewish people over the weekend. It’s the latest in a string of bigoted remarks which have horrified many former fans. Those remarks, though, have also been celebrated by rightwing media figures and politicians. Kanye’s enthusiastic, undeniable embrace of antisemitism shows that antisemitism is central to, and an inevitable consequence of, the GOP’s embrace of a politics of division and intolerance.

Kanye’s tweet, since deleted for egregious violation of Twitter’s rules, read, “I’m a bit sleepy but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” He added, “You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”

Kanye’s message here is in line with that of other antisemites from Hitler on down. Like the Nazis, Kanye suggests that Jewish people have great power and are oppressing him. His hatred of Jewish people, and his explicit call for violence, is presented as a reasonable and necessary response to supposed Jewish attacks on him. For antisemites, paranoia and bigotry justify violence and more bigotry.

Read Noah Berlatsky’s full post.