Kanye West Says Slavery Was "A Choice" in New Interview

Kanye West decided to take his Twitter rants (opens in new tab) to the TMZ newsroom after publicly declaring his support for Donald Trump (opens in new tab). West starts off the conversation with TMZ by once again referencing his love for the president, whom he calls "his boy:"

"I just love Trump, that's my boy. Trump is one of rap's favorite people. I'm in hip-hop, but I'm not just hip-hop. I'm part of a black community. People try to minimize me to artist, hip-hop, black community. I'm always going to represent that, but I also represent the world."

The conversation suddenly jumps to slavery.

"When you hear about slavery for 400 years... For 400 years? That sounds like a choice. You was there for 400 years and it's all y'all? It's like we're mentally in prison. I like the word "prison" because "slavery" goes too direct to the idea of blacks. Slavery, Holocaust, Holocaust, Jews, slavery is blacks. So prison is something that unites us as one race. Blacks and whites are one race—we're the human race."

The camera then flips back to the TMZ office after the interview is finished and Kanye shouts, "Do you feel that I'm being free and I'm thinking free?"

A TMZ staffer, hero, then stands up and replies to Kanye with this objectively very eloquent response:

"I actually don't think you're thinking anything. What you're doing right now is actually the absence of thought. And the reason why I feel like that is because, Kanye, you're entitled to your opinion, you're entitled to believe whatever you want, but there is fact and real-world, real-life consequences behind everything that you just said. While you are making music and being an artist and living the life that you've earned by being a genius, the rest of us in society have to deal with these threats to our lives. We have to deal with the marginalization that has come from the 400 years of slavery that you said, for our people, was 'a choice.' Frankly, I'm disappointed, I'm appalled, and brother, I am unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something that, to me, that's not real. Bro, you gotta be responsible man."

Kanye runs over to the staffer: "Bro, I'm sorry I hurt you." Watch the full video for yourself below:

It seems that much of the Twitterverse, which wasted no time reacting to Kanye's controversial comments, is on Team TMZ staffer.