Slavery and Sabbatum Night Live: Everything Kanye Talked About on TMZ

Kanye West

Kanye West on TMZ Live Monday afternoon. Photo: TMZ

Of course yous were besides busy to sentry Kanye Westward on TMZ Alive Monday afternoon, so Vulture (unfortunately) sat through it for you. For well-nigh 30 rambling minutes, Kanye West and Harvey Levin had a chat about Donald Trump and politics, slavery and Saturday Night Live, largely unsupported by any facts or discernible logic. Wearing a naught-up hoodie and his redesigned Make America Not bad Again cap, Westward besides detailed plans for his new album Yandhi — which was expected to be released terminal weekend. The anthology, West told Levin, volition now exist released November 23, because the rapper has to go to "what is known as Africa" to record information technology. See the highlights (read: lowlights) of their conversation below.

On Saturday Dark Alive
"The bullying came from people effectually me in my circumvolve telling me why I shouldn't exist wearing the lid. It put my energy in more of a reactionary identify. A lot of times when people bully you, you become reactionary."

"Now, Lorne has promised me to host this year. I do experience a bit slighted that I accept not hosted SNL considering it's going to be lit! When nosotros did the Lil Pump thing, I feel that I'm missing my calling a lilliputian bit. I'k then funny!"

On the 13th Amendment and prisons
"I'm gonna read to you something that my friend GLC from Chicago wrote for me because he puts a lot of energy into understanding historical facts."

"'Abolish' was the wrong language. I misspoke. 'Amend' is the right linguistic communication."

"In lodge to come with a solution [to] this complicated issue, to get a audio bite from me will but crusade some type of headline. So the headline I'm gonna requite you is: We need people to amend the 13th amendment that wait like the the people that the 13th amendment [is] talking almost."

Levin: "What'due south deficient virtually [the 13th Amendment] in your view?"
West: "What's scarce most it is [Editor's note: Kanye begins to read from his phone] the principals that wrote the Constitution were Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine, and John Adams — "
Levin: "Just not the 13th Subpoena, considering that was actually driven by Abraham Lincoln, which was long afterwards."
West: "All white men. Okay. The affair is you're going to pull me into a place — this is what liberals often exercise for Donald Trump. They try to say, 'Y'all missed this fact! You said that there were 800,000 slaves in the 1800s but there were three.7 million slaves in the 1800s. But what I was saying is that at a single time, in that location were 800,000 and at present there's … two million, and for lack of a knowledgeable thought-out improve term, we'll say 'blackness' or we'll say 'African-American.' Considering I don't know where 'Africa America' is. I saw 'Latin America,' I've never seen 'Africa America.' Just for at present until nosotros determine what we telephone call our civilization, we'll call ourselves African-American or blackness. For now. Right now there'south over two one thousand thousand black or African-Americans in prison, a lot for irenic crimes, a lot for beginning time offenses."

On the United States Constitution
"At that place should exist a group, a modern day group, of respected, super-knowledgeable people. Not me every bit a celebrity with an stance. There should be a group of super-knowledgeable people that come from all cultures that then make the amendments on our Constitution."

"This country, up to this point, has been run by fearfulness, and not by beloved."

On 2024
"I was telling my dad that I was running for function in 2024. He was like, 'It's gonna cost a lot of money.' I said, 'Dad we're going to take all the money in the world presently as I run.'"

"1 of the things I'm going to practise when I run is non give answers off the cuff. I'm gonna talk to experts."

On Chicago
"All of this brilliance that I practical to making all of these albums, and the brilliance to making these sneakers and making the second fastest growing company in history — our last valuation was at $2.2 billion, and we do that off of four items. Now nosotros can apply that to Chicago."

On Donald Trump
"Do you feel people can grow? For someone to grow, they demand to know that they got love. That someone loves, and that someone is leading with love, or that a group of people is leading with beloved. At that place's no way to start a dialogue with 'Fuck you.' That'southward not how y'all lead with honey."

Levin: "[Donald Trump] has been on this path for years now where people have criticized it, and he'southward merely amped it upward. At a point, don't yous say, 'He is who he is?'"
West: [A minute long silence, in the middle of which Kanye asks a human being off camera to move aside so he can feel a woman's free energy]
Levin: "Do you want me to repeat?"
W: "No."
Levin: "Why don't nosotros do this, we tin can't accept a quick break — "
West: "No. We're non going to Jimmy Kimmel the state of affairs. No, nosotros're non going to come right back. We're not going to Jimmy Kimmel the state of affairs. We're going to give me time to call up. You lot asked me a serious question and I'thou going to accept some fourth dimension to think about my answer. I'm going to use time to my advantage in this state of affairs. At present repeat the question."

W: "Y'all're non giving a question, you're giving opinions."
Levin: "The question is you had said that people have the ability to grow. What I'one thousand saying is — "
West: "Yeah, what you're saying. So now I'yard waiting for a question for me."
Levin: "My point is, do you give upward on them growing?"
Westward: "We're not making a point. Yous're going to ask me a question."
Levin: "Do you give up on somebody growing when they are unrelenting because they are who they are?"
Due west: "And I love it. Now you lot asked me the perfect question, you set me up to win. We never give up on anyone."

On the redesigned MAGA hat
"To me, I've got the correct to wear what I desire. That's what's then dope about this country."

On his new album
"I started incorporating sounds that y'all've never heard before, pushing, and having concepts that people don't talk about. Nosotros have concepts talkin' almost body shaming, women being looked down upon for how many people they've slept with. It'southward just a full Ye album. Those five albums that I dropped before were like superhero rehabilitation. Now the alien Ye is fully back in mode, off of medication, working out, breathing as much fresh air every bit possible, thinking, doing, existence hisself."

"Nosotros're going to Africa in 2 weeks to record. I felt this free energy when I was in Chicago, I felt the roots. But we take to get to what is known as Africa. I demand to become, I need to find out what it's really called. Just take hold of the soil and be and cook food — five meals a twenty-four hours then the metabolism stays up — have my kids in the studio, have the mic out in the open up so you tin hear nature while we're recording. So we're going to bring out the album on what is known as Blackness Friday, November 23."

What Kanye Talked About on TMZ: Slavery, Saturday Dark Live