*Days after word got out about Kanye West’s backstage meltdown on the set of “Saturday Night Live,” audio from the incident has come to light.
Detailing the clip, Page Six reports that West can be heard uttering multiple profanities as he yelled at “SNL”’s production staff, calling them white motherf**kers.” In addition, the rapper brought Taylor Swift into the situation when he labeled the pop queen a “fake ass.”
Prior to mentioning Swift, West is heard yelling “Don’t f*ck with me” repeatedly at the production staff, before branding Swift — who he claims on his new album he made famous — a “fake ass.”
As the audio continued, West boasts that he is “50 percent more influential” than legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, Pablo Picasso, Paul the Apostle and notorious drug runner Pablo Escobar. Keep in mind that Paul the Apostle was handpicked by Christ to deliver the gospel.
Quite a group for Ye to claim himself superior over.
“Are they f*cking crazy? Whoa by 50 percent [I am more influential than] Stanley Kubrick, Picasso, Apostle Paul, f*cking Picasso and Escobar,” West expressed in his rant. “By 50 percent more influential than any other human being. Don’t f–k with me. Don’t f*ck with me. Don’t f*ck with me. By 50 percent dead or alive, by 50 percent for the next 1,000 years. Stanley Kubrick, ‘Ye.”
Apparently, the meltdown, which went down just minutes before “SNL” went on the air Saturday (Feb. 13), resulted when West became upset at staffers who messed with the setting for his performance. According to Page Six, the staffers ripped up shiny flooring from West’s set because it reflected the stage lights. As a result, the reflecting created a confusing effect with the video wall behind the rhymesayer.
“Look at that sh*t they took my f*cking stage off’a SNL without asking me. I am bummed … If I am going to do this we are breaking the motherf*cking Internet,” West can be heard yelling in the audio.
West’s meltdown was so massive that “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels had to step in and reason with West to keep him from carrying out his threat to leave the show during its live broadcast. Ultimately, West ended up staying and performing two songs from his latest album, “The Life of Pablo.”
“It was like he was having an emotional breakdown. He was calling the crew ‘white motherf*ckers’ and then said he was going to walk out,” a source told Page Six. “The only thing that stopped him from actually leaving right then was that nobody had access to the freight elevator. If he’d walked out on the live show, it would have been a disaster. And the whole meltdown was just because of the floor. ”
In the audio clip Page Six obtained, West cannot be heard calling the production crew “white motherf*ckers.”
“Right before he was about to go on live television they took his stage apart,” a source close to West shared with the news outlet. Like any artist, he’s a perfectionist, and wanted his performance to be right. Of course he was upset.”
Along with denying that West called the “SNL” crew “white motherf*ckers,” a rep for the rapper commented further on the audio in a newly released statement.
“He did not yell at ‘SNL’ staff,” the rep said, according to Complex. “This audio was secretly recorded while he was venting his frustration in a private moment with his team. He found out his stage design was changed and taken apart under the direction of the show’s lighting director without anyone’s approval. He had spent an entire day rehearsing and a lot of hard work went into the performance. Dramatic set changes were made 30 minutes before going live. It should be understandable why he was upset after being completely blindsided.”
The audio of West’s rant comes amid an active week for the “Through the Wire” MC. Among the tracks included on “The Life of Pablo,” was one that found West rhyming about having sex with Swift and stating that he “made the bitch famous.”
Despite denying he dissed Swift and insisting she heard and greenlighted the song, Swift fired back at West while accepting her Grammy for album of the year.
“There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame…But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you…you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there,” the “Bad Blood” superstar said without naming West specifically.
To hear West’s rant, click on the audio, which contains explicit language, below
https://youtu.be/OqofSvTzMrU
https://youtu.be/GpKG4103b2A