During his recent Saturday Night Live appearance, Kanye famously took a moment to tell the audience that he was being bullied over his decision to wear a "Make America Great Again" hat, merchandise emblazoned with a campaign slogan popularized by Donald Trump. "They screamed at me. They bully me. They bullied me backstage," he alleged. "They said don’t go out there with that hat on. They bullied me backstage. They bullied me.”
Kanye's accusations have since sparked comments from critics and supporters of both West and Trump. Donald Trump Jr. took to his twitter account to express his disdain with "the left" working at SNL tweeting, "Is anyone even a little bit shocked that [Kanye West] was bullied backstage for wanting to wear a #maga hat on SNL? Despite the BS they preach, the left isn’t tolerant of any view that differs even slightly from their own. You obey or you’re out."
According to a report by AllHipHop, contrary to popular belief, the bully came from within Kanye's inner circle rather than the SNL studio. Kanye was accompanied by one his longtime companions Malik Yusef to the SNL taping where the two peers got into an argument. Malik told AllHipHop that he had spoken to Ye before he went on stage wearing the MAGA hat. “'I’m not gonna be around you if you wear that MAGA (Make America Great Again) hat, '" he told West. Malik went on to reveal, "And I left out of 'Saturday Night Live.' I was embarrassed to tell Chris Rock. I was leaving out when he was coming in with his daughters. He was like, 'Aye Malik, come back upstairs.' I was like, 'Yeah, I’ll be back,' and I was leaving to go to my hotel."
Malik reports that it was after this argument that West took the stage with accusations that he had been bullied. "He said I bullied him, and that’s not true. He said that in front of his daughter North, and it hurt my feelings," he said.
Catch the full interview here.