‘SNL’ and the 13th Amendment – these celebrities think Kanye West has gone too far this time

A chaotic appearance on last weekend's 'Saturday Night Live' and - predictably - his Twitter opinions have prompted some famous faces to turn against Ye

Kanye West, as we all know by now, is absolutely no stranger to controversy. But 2018 has seen Ye – as he now wants to be officially (and not just colloquially) called – exceed himself when it comes to courting attention and/or uproar; as he acknowledged on the Pusha T track ‘What Would Meek Do’, his every public appearance, tweet or utterance “cause a new debate“.

So many of us had hoped that the rapper’s ‘Dragon Energy’ school of thought – y’know, the, er, trait he said he shared with Donald Trump back in April as he tried to further justify his support for the President – would be short-lived, but Kanye’s latest surge of activity over the past few days has really pissed people off, including some pretty high-profile celebrities.

It all started earlier this month with the surprise announcement of his next music project, ‘Yandhi’. Slated to arrive on the day of his Saturday Night Live guest appearance over the weekend (September 29), Kanye then lived up to expectation by appearing in promotional clips for the Adam Driver-hosted episode wearing his current favourite ‘Make America Great Again’ hat. This… this did not go down well with Adam, clearly.

Advertisement

Needless to say, the infamous hat made an appearance in Saturday’s live show during the episode-ending performance of the ‘ye’ track ‘Ghost Town’. And it was at the conclusion of the episode that Kanye managed to further piss off the Star Wars actor, with Driver and various SNL cast members reportedly walking off stage as Kanye launched into a largely off-air monologue about his support for Trump.

“So many times I talk to a white person and [they] say, ‘How could you like Trump, he’s racist?’” Kanye said during the ramble, which was cut for time by SNL producers. “Well, if I was concerned about racism, I would have moved out of America a long time ago.”

The Roots drummer Questlove summed up how many were feeling after the SNL debacle in the below tweet, which referenced Chris Rock’s Instagram-caught footage of Kanye’s speech.

Advertisement

Despite the speech, Kanye has since claimed that he’s subsequently been offered the hosting gig by SNL creator Lorne Michaels – imagine the reaction to his opening monologue if he does guest-host one day, or even the efforts he’d go to in order to top Saturday’s bizarre performance of ‘I Love It’ with Lil Pump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rJfSHnOZeY

Kanye continued his eventful weekend with yet another alarming public statement last night (September 30). After defending his MAGA hat (which he said “represents good and America becoming whole again”), he then said that he hoped that freed prisoners would be provided with jobs “as we abolish” the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution (he later clarified that he meant to type “amend”), which originally prohibited slavery and “involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime”.

This… this did not go down well.

Captain America actor Chris Evans was one high-profile critic of the tweet, calling Kanye’s outlook “maddening”.

“The level of unapologetic conjecture I’ve encountered lately isn’t just frustrating, it’s retrogressive, unprecedented and absolutely terrifying,” he concluded.

As you may have already read today, Lana Del Rey also took aim at Kanye over his views last night – branding his ongoing support for Trump as “a loss for the culture”.

“If you think it’s alright to support someone who believes it’s OK to grab a woman by the pussy just because he’s famous – then you need an intervention as much as he does,” she wrote in a lengthy comment underneath Kanye’s MAGA-featuring Instagram post.

Director Ava DuVernay – whose powerful documentary film 13th explored the 13th Amendment, racial inequality and mass incarceration – declined to comment on Kanye’s take on the amendment, adding: “I can’t do nothing for him.”

Plenty of other prominent names have had their say on Kanye’s views, too:

And to top it all off, ‘Yandhi’ still hasn’t arrived. What a weekend. Same time next week, Ye?

You May Also Like

Advertisement

TRENDING

Advertisement

More Stories