Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, lost a large number of brand deals and supporters as a result of his past anti-Semitic remarks. Though he’s seemingly moved on and apologized to the Jewish community, Candace Owens unveiled a previously unseen interview with the Chicago rapper on Wednesday (Aug. 7).
Dated Oct. 17, 2022, the pair’s sit-down touched on topics like religion, the “White Lives Matter” T-shirt controversy, JAY-Z and more. Roughly 20 minutes in, Ye opened up about his infamous “going [DEFCON] 3 on Jewish people” tweet.
“When I said DEFCON 3, I didn’t get an opportunity to say what that meant, but it meant I’m going to call out all these things that have been done to me specifically by Jewish people that so happened to be businessmen or businesswomen,” Ye explained before calling himself “the darker Jew.”
He continued, “I know you guys are going to call this [anti-Semitic], but I’m not afraid of that title. Now I’m going to lean into that title.”
Around the same time the interview was recorded, heavyweights such as Adidas, Gap, Creative Artists Agency and Balenciaga either had or were already in the process of cutting ties with Ye. As for the last-mentioned label, he called their breakup “one of the most freeing days” of his life.
Fast-forward to 2023, and Ye landed in hot water again for “VULTURES,” in which he dropped lines like, “How I’m anti-Semitic? I just f**ked a Jewish b**ch.” Several months later, when VULTURES 1 debuted, he fired back on “KING”: “‘Crazy, bipolar, anti-Semite’ / And I’m still the king.”
Further into his chat with Owens, Ye spoke about what he perceives as the “Black Holocaust,” specifically linking it to the abortion and birth rates among African Americans. He noted, “Six million Jewish people died in the Holocaust. Over 20 million darker Jews, Black people, have been aborted.”
“If I [attempt] to have a conversation with a Jewish person about the abortion rate, they won’t allow the conversation to be had. That’s why I said, ‘Hey, I’m me-tooing the Jewish race,’” Ye continued.