controversial rapper Kanye West on Thursday offered a simple explanation for his “White Lives Matter” t-shirt in Tucker Carlson interview.
The Grammy Award winner, 45, doubled down on his decision to wear the shirt in an hour-long sit-down with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, where he also appeared shocked by the backlash the stunt caused.
“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,” West explained of the creative choice.
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Kenye West, who now legally goes by the first name Ye, said his father had reached out to him about the shirt, which he found hilarious.
“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.’”
The Donda artist continued: “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.”
“So the answer to why I wrote White Lives Matter on a shirt is because they do. It’s the obvious thing,” Kanye West said.
The phrase “White Lives Matter” has been classified by the Anti-Defamation League as a “white supremacist phrase” that originated in 2015 following the start of the Black Lives Matter movement.
As the organization details on its website, members of the Aryan Renaissance Society and other white supremacists have promoted the slogan, including the Ku Klux Klan.
Kanye West, who previously faced criticism over his support for Donald Trump, also claimed he faced death threats for wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, while his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her mother Kris Jenner allegedly attempted to censor his political opinions.
“I started to really feel this need to express myself on another level when Trump was running for office and I liked him,” he explained. “And every single person in Hollywood, from my ex-wife to my mother-in-law, to my manager at that time, to my so-called friends/handlers around me, told me if I said that I like Trump, that my career would be over, my life would be over.
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“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. I had someone call me last night and said, ‘Anybody wearing a White Lives Matter shirt is gonna be greenlit, and that means they’re gonna beat them up if they wear it. And I’m like, ‘OK, greenlight me then,’ ” West added.
Watch Tucker Carlson interview with Kenye West.
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