Watch T.I. Talk Confronting Kanye West: ‘We Cannot Afford to Lose [Him]’
T.I. talked about the events that precipitated the Kanye West collaboration “Ye Vs. the People” during a visit to The Breakfast Club Wednesday. “We, as the black delegation, cannot afford to lose Kanye West,” T.I. said. “He is our Michael Jackson.”
The rapper revealed that he first reached out to West following his controversial string of tweets. T.I. was then invited to West’s Los Angeles home, where he confronted West about his apparently right-leaning views and his photos wearing one of Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again hats.
T.I. recounted what he was thinking during the encounter, saying”‘I’m sure you have a very logical explanation to all this. Where’s it heading? What’s the punch line?’ And [West] said, ‘Man, I’m just being a free thinker.'”
As for why West wore the MAGA hat, the rapper told T.I., “‘Man, my subconscious spoke to my conscious and it just moved me to wear the hat.’ I’m like, ‘You know what the hat represent?’ He’s like, ‘Not when I wear it.'”
T.I. said that West briefly expressed some regret over his tweets when T.I. broached how disappointed West’s fans were. “‘Have you thought about the people that supported you that you hurt when you put that hat on?’ And then he looked different. I could see an epiphany,” T.I. said before quoting West, “‘I hurt someone by having my own opinion?'” West almost mollified the situation by changing some words on the Make America Great Again hat before opting to leave it as is. “‘That wouldn’t prove my point,'” West told T.I.
The T.I. interview follows West’s lengthy interview with Charlamagne tha God where the rapper talked about why he was inspired by Donald Trump’s presidential run, his tumultuous mental health, his relationship with Jay-Z and more.