Highlights:
- Kanye West wore a shirt emblazoned with the words “White Lives Matter” at the Paris Fashion Week
- Ye talks about why he wore the piece of apparel which held at the receiving end of a major backlash
The 45 year old American rapper Kanye “Ye” West talks about the shirt inscribed with the words “White Lives Matter” which he wore during the Paris Fashion Week for his Yeezy show on Monday.
Interviewing on the Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight, aired Thursday, Kanye was asked why he wore the shirt that spurred an immediate backlash in the fashion community and elsewhere. Kanye responded by saying that he does “certain things from a feeling.” He went on to say, “It’s using a gut instinct, a connection with God and just brilliance.”
The American record producer said that his father texted him saying he found the shirt humorous, and the star could not agree more.
West said, “My dad is an educated ex-Black Panther, and he put a text to me today and he said, ‘White lives matter hahahaha,’” and added, “And I said, ‘I thought the shirt was a funny shirt; I thought the idea of me wearing it was funny.’ And I said, ‘Dad, why did you think it was funny?’ He said, ‘Just a Black man stating the obvious.’”
When the host asked West as to why he thought the shirt was seen as controversial, West responded, “Because the same people that have stripped us of our identity and labelled us as a colour have told us what it means to be Black and the vernacular that we’re supposed to have.”
Kanye West also talked about his exchange with Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, Editor for Vogue, who criticised the shirt on social media. West had then posted negative remarks about the editor, including a suggestion that Anna Wintour, Vogue head, would not like Karefa-Johnson’s boots, which led Gigi Hadid to call him a bully.
In the course of the interview with Carlson, Kanye said that influencers have been brought in to influence his estranged wife, Kim Kardashian, who filed for divorce in February.
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He said, “No one in the fashion world knows where Gabby came from,” and added “These people were practically made in a laboratory.”
He also said, “This Gabby girl and Gigi and these people, they would have never said anything negative — unless they got the OK from [Vogue publisher] Condé Nast, unless they got the OK from Anna,” and added, “It was a setup.”
The publication came forward to defend Karefa-Johnson in an Instagram post which said, “Vogue stands with Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, our global fashion editor at large and longtime contributor,” the message read, in part. “She was personally targeted and bullied. It is unacceptable,” on Tuesday.
