Kanye continued his Loud & Wrong 2018 Tour with a stop by the offices of TMZ where he held a live debate about his “free thinking” and:: squints at notes:: slavery. Broadcasting directly from a television playing in an empty room during The Purge, Kanye eschewed parliamentary debate style in favor of shouting at a bunch of gossip bloggers in their cubicles.
Like a MadLib from hell, the rapper and fashion mogul held forth on various subjects ranging from opioid addiction to American history, most notably claiming that the 400 years of slavery was, somehow, “a choice.”
Perhaps confusing chattel slavery for a gig that pays in exposure, Kanye exclaimed, “You hear about slavery for 400 years? For 400 years? That sounds like a choice.” Congratulations to Kanye West on being the ashiest guy in your freshman year World History lecture.
For TMZ’s Van Lathan (and the world at large), enough was enough from the free-thinking rapper who seems to be competing with the president for most pointlessly incendiary comments per day. “Do you feel that I’m thinking free?” Kanye screamed at a room full of people who are just trying to do their jobs. One man spoke up in the back, “I actually don’t think you’re thinking anything,” he said, trying to come for my job.
The man lit into Kanye for a full minute, reminding him that his words, while empty, held weight and his unexamined rumination was damaging a society that, honestly, is pretty much done for anyway. “Frankly, I’m disappointed,” the man concluded, channeling every grandmother, aunt, and vice principal in the world, “I’m appalled, and brother, I am unbelievably hurt that you have morphed into something that, to me, is not real.”
