*Kanye “Ye” West is in figtin’ mode these days. Thursday night he hooked up with Tucker Carlson for an interview on Fox News, and defended the controversial “White Lives Matter” t-shirts he showed on his Yeezy Season 9 runway during Paris Fashion Week Monday.
“They’re looking for an explanation — as an artist, you don’t have to give an explanation, but as a leader, you do,” West, 45, told Carlson.
“So the answer to why I wrote ‘White Lives Matter’ on a shirt is: They do. It’s an obvious thing.”
The problem is the phrase “White Lives Matter” has been classified as a “white supremacist phrase” by the Anti-Defamation League, and several fashion insiders in attendance walked out of Ye’s show upon seeing the shirts. One of those people was Jaden Smith.
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As we reported earlier, Vogue editor and stylist Gabriella-Karefa Johnson called the designs “deeply offensive, violent and dangerous.” That immediately got her West publicly ridiculed by West which then prompted others in the industry — among them Gigi Hadid and Hailey Baldwin — to jump in and defend Johnson and go at West.
And because of the negative reaction to his runway creativity, Ye blamed “a group mob” of “liberal Nazis” with the backlash he’s received. He thinks it’s a “PC thing.”
“I do certain things from a feeling,” West said. “I just channel the energy, it just feels right. It’s using a gut instinct, a connection with God and just brilliance.”
West brought up his father, a former Black Panther, saying he appreciated the controversial t-shirts.
“I thought the shirt was a funny shirt,” West said. “I thought the idea of wearing it was funny. And I said, ‘Dad, why do you think it’s funny?’ And he said, ‘Just a black man stating the obvious.’”
And despite his deal with Adidas being in jeopardy, West isn’t making any apologies and plans to continue wearing (and distributing) the shirts.
“I had someone call me last night and said, ‘Anybody wearing a ‘White Lives Matter’ shirt is going to be green-lit.’ That means they are going to beat them up if they wear it,” he told Carlson.
“I’m like, you know, ‘Okay, green-light me, then.’”
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