Over the weekend, Kanye West stoked the outrage fires yet again with more philosophic Twitter musings, this time including vague support for conservative, anti–Black Lives Matter commentator Candace Owens and “the way she thinks.†His tweets sparked a tense phone call between Kanye and Hot 97 host Ebro Darden, which the DJ recapped on his radio show Monday morning. According to Darden, Kanye said he intended to contextualize his Owens tweet and “wanted to have open dialogue,†but then decided “let me just take this heat right now and maybe people will understand when I put the music out.†He elaborated that Owens appeals to him because “she’s challenging conventional black thought,†and he feels “demonized†for attempting to do the same.
Throughout their conversation, Darden says Kanye professed his love for Donald Trump, explaining that he “reached out to Obama for years and couldn’t get anything done, but Trump gave me a meeting.†When Darden questioned the legitimacy of that meeting, saying he allowed Trump to merely exploit him for a photo op, Kanye said Trump is just busy. Kanye told Darden his ultimate goal is to “deprogram†people and “have people think differently than they thought before,†and that he doesn’t believe he’s out of touch. Kanye also revealed that his 2016 hospitalization was due to an opioid addiction and that he still harbors resentment that “nobody really showed love for me†during that time.