Amid Kanye West making headlines for a slew of controversies – including his antisemitic rhetoric, false claims about George Floyd’s death, and “White Lives Matter” stunt – more of his terrible comments are coming to light.
According to a new report from The Wrap published on Saturday, the 45-year-old spewed a ton of harmful and controversial remarks during his 2019 interview for David Letterman’s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, but they never made the final cut. Audience members have now come forward, claiming the final edit of Kanye’s appearance with David did not include a bunch of “shocking” moments.
What was removed from the episode? During the January 2019 taping at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles, Noah Reich and David Maldonado claimed Kanye often shared right-wing conspiracy theories and stated that liberals treated anyone wearing a pro-Donald Trump MAGA hat “like they were Nazis.”
Related: Amy Schumer Calls Kanye West A ‘Nazi’ In SNL Opening Monologue
Kanye also reportedly went on a rant about the #MeToo movement, referencing an unidentified music executive friend that got “MeToo-ed” and how he himself also could be “MeToo-ed.” The fashion designer then spoke about “a Hollywood power structure” that pushed forward the movement, which Noah believed he was referring to Jewish People. Truly disgusting. Noah and David claimed they overheard Kanye complaining that the media always seemed to side with women over men when misconduct allegations surfaced, recalling how the father of four allegedly victim-blamed Rihanna for her 2009 brutal assault. Kanye allegedly said:
“Chris Brown’s career is basically over and you have Rihanna and everyone took her side. She must have done something to merit what happened to her.”
What the f**k?!
When Noah and other audience members tried to push back and question his remarks, the insider claimed Kanye and David would not acknowledge them. Noah told the outlet:
“It was shocking to see that Kanye West could share harmful alt-right beliefs, conspiracy theory after conspiracy and misogynistic beliefs about women for the majority of the interview and end up with an edit that removed all those items in favor of celebrity fluff content.”
Most of these comments were supposedly cut out of the final edit, with a majority of the discussion focusing on the rapper’s mental health struggles, Yeezy clothes and shoes, and Sunday Service. However, the show did include a comment about liberals bullying Trump and some remarks about #MeToo. Another audience member identified as Larry F also mentioned that he’s “not sure what legalities they’re dealing with,” but the episode was not “an honest assessment of what went on that night.”
Letterman’s Worldwide Pants, Inc., who produces My Next Guest, told The Wrap that the show is “an edited conversation show” that was shot for more than five hours over two days with Kanye and needed to be edited down to 55 minutes, adding:
“Nearly four years ago, in an interview for ‘My Next Guest,’ Kanye West discussed a wide range of topics with David Letterman, including, family, fatherhood, music and creativity. Kanye also told Dave that he had just been diagnosed with bipolar disorder six months earlier, which led to a personal discussion about mental illness, its stigma and treatment, and for the first time he talked about what he experiences when he has bipolar episodes.”
They continued:
“Mr. West subsequently began an offensive rant about the MeToo movement. He also later spoke about liberals purportedly bullying Trump supporters, and about free speech being suppressed. These points were represented in the show, the producers went to great lengths to accurately present them, and Dave challenged him on each of these.”
Worldwide Pants then noted that “unfounded attacks on specific individuals are not included out of privacy, accuracy and legal concerns.” A spokesperson for Netflix reiterated the same sentiments, telling TheWrap that “the episode was edited for time and that producers tried to accurately represent the conversation and the variety of issues addressed.”
This is not the first time that controversial comments from Kanye were axed out of an interview. It recently came to light his remarks about his “love” for Hitler and Nazis during a live TMZ taping in 2018 were cut.
Kanye has yet to speak out about this latest report, but we are sure he’ll have something to say about it. Reactions, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments below.
[Image via Netflix/YouTube]
