Last Updated on October 7, 2022
Kanye West elaborated on his motivations behind wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt during his fashion event in Paris earlier this week. “I do certain things from a feeling,” West said. “I just channel the energy, it just feels right. It’s using a gut instinct, a connection with God and just brilliance,” West told Tucker Carlson of Fox News in an exclusive interview.
West told Carlson that his father reached out to him about the shirt. “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 man stating the obvious.’”
West has been relentlessly criticized by corporate media outlets over his decision to wear the shirt alongside conservative activist Candace Owens.
The Anti-Defamation League classifies the phrase “White Lives Matter” as a “white supremacist phrase that originated in early 2015 as a racist response to the Black Lives Matter movement.”
Jaden Smith, the youngest son of actor Will Smith, abruptly left the Paris event after he learned about the shirt. The statement “White Lives Matter” prompted Smith to go on a lengthy Twitter tirade where he tweeted “true leaders lead” and “we demand a more progressive future.”
“They’re looking for an explanation — as an artist, you don’t have to give an explanation, but as a leader, you do,” West told Carlson in response to his critics. “So the answer to why I wrote ‘White Lives Matter’ on a shirt is they do. It’s an obvious thing,” West said.
As a result of the “controversy,” the rapper’s lucrative deal with Adidas is reportedly “under review.”
When Carlson asked why the phrase “White Lives Matter” was backlash so much, West blamed “a group mob” of “liberal Nazis,” as well as the media, who he accused of engineering societal thoughts and norms.
“Because the same people that have stripped us of an identity and labeled us as a color have told us what it means to be black and the vernacular you’re supposed to have,” the rapper said.
West — who has supported former President Trump in the past — also shared that his support for the 45th president led to death threats and backlash from his Hollywood circles.
“My so-called friends/handlers around me told me if I said that I liked Trump, that my career would be over. That my life would be over. They said stuff like ‘People get killed for wearing a hat like that.’ They threatened my life. They basically said that I would be killed for wearing the hat,” West said.
“My so-called friends/handlers around me told me if I said that I liked Trump, that my career would be over. That my life would be over. They said stuff like ‘People get killed for wearing a hat like that.’ They threatened my life. They basically said that I would be killed for wearing the hat,” West said.
Additional segments from Tucker Carlson’s exclusive interview with Kanye West are set to air on Friday evening.