It might’ve taken him a deep breath and a pause that extended over two weeks, but Kanye is finally ready to answer Jimmy Kimmel’s question about whether or not he thinks Donald Trump cares about black people. Earlier this month, Kanye got out of answering the question by taking too long to respond so that Kimmel had to cut to a commercial break, which Kanye later said wasn’t him intentionally avoiding the question or being “stumped†by it, he just needed time to think. And that time was 19 days, apparently. West appeared on Chicago’s WGCI radio station this morning where he was once again faced with Kimmel’s exact same question … and once again took another pause, blinked repeatedly, then actually answered:
“I feel that he cares about the way that black people feel about him and he would like for black people to like him like they did when he was cool and in rap songs. And he will do the things that are necessary to make that happen. Because he’s got an ego like the rest of us and he wants to be the greatest president, and he knows that he can’t be the greatest president without the acceptance of the black community. So it’s something that he’s gon’ have to work towards, but we gon’ have to speak to him.â€
He also touched on his relationship with Drake, saying there isn’t any beef on his end, and he believes Drake was upset over a beat. “It hits me in a really sensitive place because you hang around people, they come to your house and be around your family, then they get mad over a beat and send you purple demon emoji.†He continued, “I feel that it was insensitive for him to stress me out in any way after TMZ while I was in Wyoming healing, pulling all pieces together, and working on my music. But we’ll reconcile that one day because we got to. We’ve got work to do. Our voices are too powerful.†Kanye also said he did not intervene in the Drake–Pusha T beef (“[Pusha] is his own manâ€) and did not feed Pusha T the information about Drake’s son. “Don’t pull me into this conversation,†he said.
Later, the interview turned emotional as host Kendra G confronted Kanye about his comments to TMZ that slavery was a choice — which Kanye once again insisted were taken out of context — and why his words brought such intense pain to the black community, prompting her to break down in tears and him to apologize: “I have never really approached or addressed the slavery comment fully. And it’s not something for me to overly intellectualize. This is something about the fact that it hurt people’s feelings and the way that I presented that piece of information. I could present in a way more calm way, but I was ramped up. And I apologize. That happens sometimes when people are — I’m not blaming mental health, but I’m explaining mental health.â€
Kanye also revealed that he took media training following the slavery comment, but he’d rather have spoken to people “affected†by the comment. He added that the TMZ debacle could’ve been avoided entirely were his old manager, Don C, still in the picture. “The downfall of Kanye West is directly related to Don C not being around,†he said, fighting back tears.