Posted by Kanye West reportedly made “shocking” comments about Nazis and Rihanna’s domestic abuse that were cut from his 2019 interview with David Letterman for the comedian’s Netflix talk show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.
According to TheWrap, multiple audience members who attended the taping claim the controversial rapper “repeated right-wing conspiracy theories” and “observed that liberals treated anyone wearing a red pro-Trump cap ‘like they were Nazis.’”
Kanye also allegedly suggested Rihanna was to blame for Chris Brown’s infamous 2009 attack on her while complaining about how the media always seems to side with women over men when accusations of misconduct arise.
The G.O.O.D. Music mogul reportedly 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.”
“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,” audience member Noah Reich said.
Reich also claimed that he challenged Kanye on his offensive comments from the front row, prompting others in the audience to also speak up. However, neither Ye nor Letterman acknowledged the outcry.
Netflix declined to provide a copy of the tape or a transcript of the entire 90-minute interview, which was filmed at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles in January 2019.
However, Letterman’s Worldwide Pants, Inc. production company confirmed that “unfounded attacks on specific individuals are not included [in the episode] out of privacy, accuracy and legal concerns.”
“Not sure what legalities they’re dealing with (but) I don’t think what we saw on Netflix was an honest assessment of what went on that night,” another audience member, who asked to be identified as Larry F., added.
Reports of inflammatory comments being cut from Kanye West’s Letterman interview first surfaced in October. In a Substack article titled “David Letterman Covered Up Kanye’s Bigotry,” writer/activist Elad Nehorai revealed she received an email from an attendee who claimed that Ye “exposed the audience to white supremacist propaganda, blatant sexism, antisemitism, anti-MeToo movement, and anti-Black hate.”
The witness added: “The most harmful part of this, and this should be the focus, is that David Letterman did nothing, and that most of it didn’t air … Dave should have spoken up many times over the interview. He abdicated that responsibility.”
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My Next Guest isn’t the only show to edit out troubling statements from Kanye West. Last month, Van Lathan claimed Ye professed his love for Adolf Hitler and Nazis during his infamous interview with TMZ in 2018, where he said 400 years of slavery “sounds like a choice.”
“The reason they took it out is because it wouldn’t have made sense unless they kept in Kanye saying he loved Hitler and the Nazis, which he said when he was at TMZ,” Lathan revealed. “He said something like, ‘I love Hitler, I love Nazis.’ Something to that effect.”
Kanye’s recent interview with Fox News‘ Tucker Carlson also yielded numerous offensive and, in some cases, disturbing remarks that were left on the cutting room floor — including a claim that “fake children” had been planted in his house to “sexualize [his] kids.”
Meanwhile, Kanye’s appearance on LeBron James’ YouTube series The Shop was scrapped entirely last month after the 45-year-old “reiterate[d] more hate speech and extremely dangerous stereotypes.”
His various anti-Semitic and white supremacist comments that have been made public have resulted in a costly backlash for Kanye West, who has been dropped by several companies, in addition to facing widespread condemnation, including from some of his rap peers.
adidas’ decision to terminate their lucrative Yeezy partnership stripped Kanye of his billionaire status, slashing his net worth from $1.9 billion to a reported $400 million.
Despite apologizing for his anti-Semitic remarks during an interview with Piers Morgan last month, Kanye has otherwise showed little sign of backing down.