Kanye West’s controversial ‘Drink Champs’ interview removed from YouTube and Revolt
Kanye West‘s recent interview on the Drink Champs video podcast has been officially deleted in the wake of controversial comments on the death of George Floyd.
The interview can no longer be found on either the podcast’s YouTube channel or on the official website of its parent company, Revolt TV. Its wiping follows an apology from Drink Champs host N.O.R.E., who spoke with Hot97‘s Pete Rosenberg in the wake of the controversy.
“I have a relationship with Ye,” N.O.R.E. said (per Billboard). “When he was going through a lot of the things he was going through, he would call me and he would actually listen to me and take my advice. So, I felt [like] I could control the situation. I felt that I could control the interview, and [I] learned early on that I didn’t.”
Watch N.O.R.E.’s interview below:
In the original interview – of which clips are still circulating on Twitter – West claimed that the drug fentanyl was responsible for the death of George Floyd, rather than the brutality of police officers.
“If you look [at the video], the guy’s [police officer Derek Chauvin] knee wasn’t even on [Floyd’s] neck like that,” West claimed. Floyd’s family is considering a lawsuit against Ye over these statements, a lawyer who represented the family said yesterday.
The rapper also claimed that “the Jewish media blocked [him] out”, and that the JP Morgan Chase bank “treated [him] like shit” following their decision to sever ties with West.
The latter two comments stem from West’s recent show of antisemitism that got him banned from social media. Sarah Silverman, Jamie Lee Curtis and Diane Wilson responded to these comments, as did Bleachers‘ Jack Antonoff, West’s former collaborator John Legend, David Schwimmer, New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
West also referred to Pete Davidson, the ex-boyfriend of his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, as a “heroin addict” that “was tattooing [West’s] kids’ name on him”. He also denied his antisemitism in the interview, while simultaneously claiming that “Jewish people have owned the Black voice”.
The Drink Champs saga follows West’s appearance at Paris Fashion Week, where he wore a “White Lives Matter” shirt, before defending his actions in a Fox News interview – which itself elicited further controversy.
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