"I just love Trump. That's my boy," he said in response to a question from TMZ chief Harvey Levin about West's penchant for wearing a "Make America Great Hat."
He discussed various topics including his "free thought" stance in a sort of stream-of-consciousness style before things went off the rails.
"When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years? That sounds like a choice," he said, provoking looks of stunned silence, then this impassioned rebuke from TMZ's Van Lathan.
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“I don’t think you’re thinking anything. I think what you’re doing is the absence of thought. Kanye, you’re entitled to your opinion, you’re entitled to believe whatever you want. But there is fact and real-world, real-life consequence behind everything that you just said,” Lathan said.
"While you are making music and being an artist and living the life that you've earned by being a genius, the rest of us in society have to deal with these threats to our lives. We have to deal with the marginalization that has come from the 400 years of slavery that you said, for our people, was a choice," he said.
"Frankly, I'm disappointed, I'm appalled, and brother I am unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something that for me, is not real."
A twitter storm followed.
STOP giving Kanye a pass because of mental illness. A: you don't know if he's bipolar. B: my best friend is bipolar and the worst thing she eve did was forget to take her medicine, NOT SAY SLAVERY WAS A CHOICE
— Quinta (@quintabrunson) May 1, 2018
There is fact & real world, real life consequence behind everything you just said...the rest of us in society have to deal with these threats to our lives. We have to deal with the marginalization...from the 400 years of slavery that u said for our people was a choice.@VanLathan
— Jamie Lee Curtis (@jamieleecurtis) May 1, 2018
Kanye West said that "slavery for 400 years" "sounds like a choice".
— Ambassador Rob (@RobertoWinsSher) May 1, 2018
Nobody chose to be beaten, unmercifully, or separated from their family.
Slavery was never a choice. People were forced against their will.
Kanye West has once again shown his true side of how racist he's.
Kanye West, 2005: George Bush doesn't care about Black people.
— Pé Resists (@4everNeverTrump) May 2, 2018
Kanye West, 2018: 400 years of Black slavery sounds like a choice.
Kanye West got checked on TMZ today after he declared slavery was a choice. THOUGHTS? pic.twitter.com/NoYWwotGGt
— BigBoy'sNeighborhood (@BBNcrew) May 1, 2018
Saying Slavery is a choice is like saying if the Jews didnt want to get holocausted, why didn't they just leave the camps?
— Denizcan James (@MrFilmkritik) May 2, 2018
It sounds stupid, because it is.
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