As many expected, Ye f.k.a. Kanye West's most recent Drink Champs interview has been lighting the Internet on fire. While his industry comments were expectedly larger than life, calling former rival Drake the "greatest rapper ever" and dissing Meek Mill and Diddy, his comments on other issues were far more inflamatory, and podcast host N.O.R.E. is getting his share of the blame online.
Ye had praise for conservative pundit Candace Owens and her documentary on the murder of George Floyd, and viewers were outraged when he said Floyd died from fentanyl rather than from being asphyxiated. "If you look, the guy's neck wasn't even on his neck like that," the rapper said. Authorities determined that the cause of death was the pressure from the officer's knee. This clip and many others have prompted people to criticize N.O.R.E., the Drink Champs podcast, and Revolt TV for allowing Kanye's comments to go unchecked or unchallenged.
Some have pointed out that the Drink Champs YouTube channel has posted an extended clip of N.O.R.E. pushing back on West's "White Lives Matter" shirt and similar comments, which many theorize is a response to the backlash the lack of oversight has received. In the video, N.O.R.E. urges the Yeezy mogul to understand why his comments are harmful.
"But when you wear the White Lives Matter shirt, it kinda takes away from everything from Black people. Because what it is is the same way you wear the confederate flag, and we're like, 'Damn.' And I know you. I love you. I f**k with you, you my brother. So I take this. And I'm a real n***a. And I'm a real n***a in the streets every day. But, even me, I question, like, why would you try to... Like, even when you said, George Floyd [...] 'I can prove that somebody wasn't on his neck.' We don't even care about that, Ye."
"We Black people," N.O.R.E. continued. "We... we're Black Panthers. We're the people that you gotta f**k with. You... we f**ked with you when it was time to say that we f**ked with you. We wanna continue to follow you. We do. You are Ye. But when the White Lives Matter... We know white lives matter. We know that. But Black Lives Matter... When we are getting killed every f**king single day, we have to notice that."
Eventually, Kanye said that "White Lives Matter doesn't mean that Black lives don't matter," to which the podcast host responded with, "That's what we need you to say, Ye."
Additionally, the episode aired with a disclaimer that the podcast provides "a platform or creatives to express their personal views or opinions without restriction or censorship" and does not represent the views of Revolt TV, its owner Diddy (an ironic consideration in Kanye's case), or their affiliate companies.
Still, considering the high-profile success of Drink Champs and the incessant buzz around every move Ye makes, it's understandable that many are outraged that his comments did not receive more pushback from show hosts. Many have also pointed out how Kanye's episode on LeBron James' show The Shop was pulled for inciting more hate speech. It's a thin line between the disrespectful, the disgraceful, and the dangerous, and it's one that the media must be responsible about.
Check out some more reactions to the Drink Champs interview below.