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Last month, Kanye West caused shock, hurt and outrage when he declared in an interview with TMZ that 400 years of slavery in the United States was “a choice”.
“When you hear about slavery for 400 years … For 400 years? That sounds like a choice,” the rapper said.
“You were there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all. It’s like we’re mentally imprisoned.”
In a new interview with the New York Times, West attempted to explain his incendiary statement.
“I said the idea of sitting in something for 400 years sounds — sounds — like a choice to me, I never said it’s a choice,” West said.
“I never said slavery itself — like being shackled in chains — was a choice.
“That’s why I went from slave to 400 years to mental prison to this and that. If you look at the clip you see the way my mind works,” he said.
“I think an extreme thing; I adjust it, I adjust it, I adjust it,” he continued.
“That’s the way I get to it, but I have to push to, you know, the furthest concept possible … It’s literally like I feel like I’m in court having to justify a robbery that I didn’t actually commit, where I’m having to somehow reframe something that I never said.
“I feel stupid to have to say out loud that I know that being put on the boat was — but also I’m not backing down, bro.
“What I will do is I’ll take responsibility for the fact that I allowed my voice to be used back to back in ways that were not protective of it when my voice means too much.”
Hmmm. I wish I could say I was enlightened to the inner workings of the mind of Kanye West after this, but unfortunately, all it’s done for me is confirm Kanye has no filter.
The interview comes after Kanye and Kim Kardashian travelled to Paris for the first time since Kim was robbed at gun point in the French capital in 2016.
