Kanye West sure did revolutionize Hip Hop, but the rapper is infamous for the controversies he stirs. West never shies away from expressing what he stands for, but he has received backlash for his stance several times. From supporting Trump to calling slavery ‘a choice’, Kanye West’s antics have been criticized. Most recently, he came under fire for wearing a ‘White Lives Matter’ shirt at the Paris Fashion Week.
The rapper ended up shocking the world and the spectators at the show. It offended Jaden Smith, who walked away from the front row. Gigi Hadid took it to social media when he criticized Vogue‘s global editor. Now, the man himself has come out to talk about the risqué move and why his father found the shirt “funny”.
Related: Why Did Kanye West Wear A White Lives Matter Shirt At The Yeezy Show?
“Just A Black Man Stating The Obvious”: Kanye West’s Father Quipped About His Fashion Statement
The ‘Donda’ rapper appeared on the Fox News‘ ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’ West finally talked about the motive and idea behind his explosive fashion statement. Talking about the vision behind the Yeezy show, he said, “I do certain things from a feeling, I just channel the energy. It just feels right. It’s using a gut instinct, a connection with God, and just brilliance.”
Kanye did not just receive criticism for his move, he was praised by several others. Candace Owens wore it posing with Kanye in a picture backstage. Antonio Brown, an NFL agent, also backed the rapper. Along with celebrities, as per West, Black academicians also supported him. However, the biggest and most surprising support came from his father, Ray West. The former Black Panther Party member actually found his son’s statement funny. On the show, Kanye recalled how his father texted him about finding it funny. He said, “You know, my dad is an educated ex-Black Panther, and he put in a text to me today, he said, ‘White Lives Matter. Ha ha ha ha ha.'”
Kanye’s response to this was, “I thought the shirt was a funny shirt. I thought the idea of me wearing it was funny. And I said, ‘Dad, why do you think it was funny?’ He said, ‘Just a Black man stating the obvious.’ “
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“Favorite Response”: Kanye West On His Father’s Comment
On the show, he also clarified why he wrote ‘White Lives Matter.’ He explained, “So the answer to why I wrote White Lives Matter on a shirt is because they do. It’s the obvious thing.”
He also said that he liked the way his father responded. West said, “That [was] my favorite response. Cause … people, they’re looking for an explanation, and people say, ‘Well, as an artist you don’t have to give an explanation,’ but as a leader, you do.”
He compared the criticisms to a Black girl feeling traumatized. “It’s like a black girl saying ‘I felt traumatized when I saw a black man wearing something he wasn’t supposed to wear.” Kanye talked about how the Black people in the country base their cultural parameters on “white goal lines.”
“In America, we as blacks we’ll look down each other on how good we speak. But we’re speaking English. There’s nothing whiter than English. We’re not in our native tongue, actually. So we judge each other on white goal lines, not based on exactly what our culture is based on,” he said.
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