The Chris Cuomo Project - Ye (Cuomo Extra)

Episode Date: October 19, 2022

In this special extra from NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” Chris Cuomo speaks with Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, about the rapper’s recent antisemitic statements. Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thank you so much for joining another episode of the Chris Cuomo Project. This is an extra, and I'm sure you've heard about it, but you may not have seen it except as clips. We spoke to the artist formerly known as Kanye West, and he went off about what he believes. And I think his beliefs, certainly about Jewish people, are anti-Semitic. They're ugly and they're obvious. I also believe something else is going on with the artist known as Ye. And I talked to him about it because I don't believe that we should shy away from somebody who is struggling. doesn't mean he's not to be held account for what he says. But two things can be true at the same time. Someone could be bad and they could be struggling or they could have bad ideas. I don't think that Ye is bad. I don't

believe in this kind of judgment on that level. But what he's saying is bad and wrong. He can also be struggling. So decide for yourself. Here he is. The artist formerly known is Kanye West. Can you hear me? Can you see me? Yes, but I want you guys to hear me and see me. Can you hear me and see me? I can. I see you. You're in the back of a car. You got a hoodie and a hat on. Okay, cool. I see. I see the double. All right. You guys are supposed to be made aware to use my legal name. Yeah, I've changed my name like Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali. I'm sure you guys didn't mean it as any disrespect, but in these on the Chiron changed my name to yay.

You can say formerly known as Kanye West if you'd like to, but my name is Ye. Why'd you change it? Sir, I need to have the name changed. We'll change it. Yeah, but yeah. We'll change it. I'm asking you why did you change it? Just so people can understand.

Well, actually, I don't owe people an explanation to start off with. I have the right to change my name. I have the right in America to name. I have the right in America to vote on whoever I want to vote on. We have certain rights where as celebrities and even as the black voting block, as they call it, the black vote, are forced to, you know, always talk about their finances, always talk about their names. But it was really, uh, I didn't, the name West is a slave name and I wanted to free myself from all of the older mentality. That is, that is the reason I'm telling you that. Understood. Understood and appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you. Um, all right,

so let's go. Now what's the questions we got? So first one is where you are. There is a curiosity. You said that you're going to meet with the former president this week. Is that why you're traveling right now? No, I'm actually going to meet with the, uh, with the CEO of Parler right now. So that's real, that deal. You think it's going to happen? Uh, yeah, absolutely. And why do you want Parler? Yeah, absolutely. And why do you want Parler?

Well, I just, the CEO is just really incredible. Like what he's been able to do, like even before we discussed me taking ownership of it, he was able to get it unbanned off of Google and off of Apple. So people had a, they had a, I know there were some people who worked in social media that hit by people immediately saying that the apple's banned but it wasn't the case he actually had worked on uh removing the ban on it and why would i remain in a place where i'm tolerant just tolerated why not go to a place where I'm celebrated? It's actually something Kit Rock just gave me a text about that. Go to places where you're celebrated, not where you're just tolerated. You know, I bring a lot of attention to these platforms, to Instagram and to Twitter,

and they silo you. They shadow ban you. Everyone knows I was shadow banned on Instagram. People would go and say, hey, you know, he's running the algorithm, whatever term they use. And then I'd see on my Instagram that I had only reached 30 million people. And that's because Instagram is, you know, was purchased by Mark Zuckerberg, who from what I can see has a left agenda. So people are using their technology

to silo any messaging that they don't agree with. So couldn't it also be that you have said things that offend the community guidelines, like anti-Semitic comments and things that are seen as insensitive and potentially threatening to communities that we try to protect? Well, I don't like the term anti-Semitic. It's been a term that's allowed people specifically in my industry to get away with murder sometimes, literally, and get away with robbing and doing bad people. People always say, I got screwed on a deal.

Would that become a surprise to you if I said, hey, a music exec screwed someone on a deal? Does that sound kind of like normal commonplace to you? So for me, it doesn't have anything to do with being anti-Semitic unless you believe that all record producers are Jewish or, you know, it's when you talk about Jewish people specifically as targeting them that creates a problem. You're saying it's anti-Semitic, but I don't believe in that term. One thing is black people are also Jew. I classify as Jew also. So I actually can't be an anti-Semitic. So the term is actually, it's not factual. But I don't know. I understand you think

that. But I don't think that's a common understanding that I understand that people can say whatever they want about Jewish people. Well, I'm willing to talk with inside the common understanding until we get the truth. A common understanding oftentimes, more oftentimes than that nowadays, is that the truth the truth. So think about this. Let's just take a woman could have one bad man in her life that can make her dislike men. Let her have two. Let her have three. Let her have four.

There's got to be over 10 times that I've been screwed or bad business has been done to me just in the past two years, in the past two years alone. And what I'm doing, I'm calling the Jewish community as a whole to say, people say to me, oh, we grew up on Ye and talk to your brothers, ask them, why is Ye upset? Everybody, all they want to do is silence and shoot the messenger yeah but yeah you have to understand you have to understand how wait you have to understand i'm not finished sure all right but you already made a point that i need to deal with but go ahead let me know when you're done okay thank you very much and i don't mean to be rude on your show thank you uh for the platform um everyone wants to shoot the shoot the messenger. And look at how your point was going to start.

You have to understand. But the thing is, the Jewish people that I'm talking about don't have to understand. And that is that privilege that I'm not going to allow. When I wore the White Lives Matter T-shirt, the Jewish underground media mafia already started attacking me. They canceled my four SoFi Stadium shows, right? They had the press, the same people, the 78 outlets that when I was arguing with Pete Davidson and Trevor Noah, they call me an abuser for arguing with people about my ex-wife and my family and when I get to see my kids and when I don't. And they just immediately disrespect me. They keep the crazy narrative going. They never call me a billionaire. We never talked about, even on this one right here, hey, tycoon, billionaire, visionary, inventor. These are never used. If you go to like New York Times or Wall Street Journal, whatever, they always say

the rapper, the rapper. It was hard enough for us to get passion designer. I'm going to give a pause so you can address what you want to address. Appreciate it. So look, there is no Jewish media, cabal, mafia. That is a figment of either your imagination or a projection of a prejudice. OK, you may have had bad business dealings with people. It's about those people. It's not about their religion or faith. And I know that you are intelligent and understand that when you target people because of their faith, other people may do so the same.

They've been targeted before. They've been abused and killed because of what they believe and who they are. So we don't want to tolerate that. And 50% of the executives in Hollywood, the CEOs, are Jewish. And these guys know each other. That's different than saying it's a mafia and that they act as Jews in some way as opposed to just being businessmen. One plays to a prejudice. The other one just plays to people

and an ugly business, which is what the record business is. So you can have your feelings about it. Just don't ascribe it to their faith. Earlier. No, wait a second. You can't tell me what to do or feel. First of all, I know, but I can tell you what is wrong about what you say. No, you you said that it's not a mob mob culture. Here's the idea of a mob. People target. There's no term. Have you ever heard the term a white vote? Because there isn't a white vote because white people can vote the way they want.

Black people, we fought. My grandparents, my mother fought in civil rights. My grandfather drove the first march out of Oklahoma. My grandmother, I mean, my mother used to work for Jesse Jackson at Operation Push. My dad was a Black Panther. My family are freedom fighters, and we fought for the right to vote. You realize when I wore a red hat that my life was threatened by my Jewish managers, by my Jewish lawyer, by my Jewish accountant, by my Jewish friends inside the music industry. Like, by, no. He said, not specifically the accountant,

but there were many people who threatened my life. Also, my family was torn apart off of my political opinion because of my ex-wife's attachment to the Clinton administration. I mean, they were getting my ex-wife's attachment to the Clinton administration. I mean, they were getting my ex-wife to push the vaccination. I didn't realize how attached they were to the left agenda when I was there.

Vaccinations were not a left agenda. Yay. Okay, I understand. Okay, not specifically the vaccinations, but period, that they're on zoom calls during COVID with literally Biden and Kamala and Chris Paul and all kinds of people, celebrities, John legend, Chrissy Teigen, all these same group of people that come and attack me for what they call wrong. Think groups, you know, you don't have to like it. You don't have to like it. You don't have to say what people want you to say, but you have to understand and accept what people will and won't tolerate. That's the thing. I don't have to understand or accept because they're not

willing to understand or accept. And that's the reason why I'm not backing down. People have had their careers destroyed. That's why they keep on saying, oh, well, yeah, Ye's dangerous because he will keep talking. He will keep talking. It's what you say. It's when you say Jewish people own the black vote. When I wake up, I'm going death on three on Jewish people. Black voice. These are not things that you can say coming from a place of intelligence or love or anything productive. or anything productive. I am. I'm coming from a place of love and a place of

we're not going to be owned by the Jewish media anymore. If you think about every celebrity, if you look at their contract, and I'm going to finish what I'm saying. I know, but you have to understand this idea of the Jewish media, that's not how it works.

Don't do that. You're talking to me right now. La, la, la, la, la. So every celebrity go ahead every celebrity has jewish people in their contract this is not hate speech this is the truth and these people if you say anything out of the line with the agenda then your career could be over listen Listen, I hear you. You made that point. Because the point is, because here's why. Don't cut me off, sir.

Respect. I've listened to it. You've made it several times. No, I'm not finished, sir. I understand, but you said it several times. I'm not finished, sir. But my people haven't heard me. My people, they need to hear.

They need to hear me saying out loud what the truth is. There's a bunch of people in Hollywood that are actors, that play basketball, that play sports, that are on music, that know what I'm saying, that feel what I'm saying, and they're happy that I'm saying what I'm saying. It's not from a place of anti-Semitism. That is inherently anti-Semitic.

And I'm also Jewish. And if they're your friends, why are you talking over me, bro? Because I'm trying to correct what you're saying that is damaging to decency. No. Yo, but you can't talk over me. You can't talk over me. Well, then stop and give me a chance to make the point

that you need to listen to. No, don't cut off. I need to make a clear point. When am I allowed to make a point that you don't cut me off? You've been talking overwhelmingly during this segment, yeah? And I was, I'm happy to give you the time, but- No, you're not. No, you're not. Well, I can't just give you, I can't give you unrestricted license to attack Jewish people and say that they're your friends because that's anti-Semitic and it's dangerous. Are you going to give me a platform? Are you going to give me a platform?

I am giving you a platform, but- Okay, wait, but you talk and tell me when I can get my, all right, good. Right after I ask you this, I'll give you the rest of the time before you go. Here's my concern for you. When I hear how you talk about your personal life and you put things out there and you get into these looping thoughts of what you believe, it sounds to me like you are sometimes out of control and that this is something that you should be dealing with. Now, I'm not excusing your thoughts as illness, OK? People attack me for that and said, hey, just because you're concerned about whether Kanye West is taking care of himself emotionally and mentally.

My name's Jay, sir. My name's Jay. Yay, I'm sorry. Yay is taking care of himself mentally and emotionally. You shouldn't say that. He has to be held to account for what he says. Both things can be true. Have you been taking care of your health

and in terms of making sure that you are behaving and thinking at your best? I love what you, the way you worded it, what you don't realize is when it runs back, people are going to say, wow, have you making sure you're behaving? If you run that back, that's not what I'm saying. You're going to be like, that's how I'm saying you're trying to cheapen the point. I'm trying to make sure that you're healthy and you're taking care of your health. Did you work out this morning? No. Okay. The thing is, okay, so when do I have a... But I took my medicine.

But I took my antidepressant medication that I take every day. Bro, you're cutting me off. When do I get a platform? It's all you. Go. Okay. I don't have to say how much money's in my account. I don't have to say who I voted on.

I don't have to say why I changed my name. The life for a Black person in America is like a constant test. Even after we're out of high school, after we're out of college, we're always being questioned. Why would you do that? Why would you do that? Do you think that I just had the right? And this is a rhetorical question because I don't want you to answer it. Do you think I had the right to just vote for Trump? I didn't even vote for Trump because of the people that were around me. Yes, you have the right. Okay. So for all of my fellow entertainers that know what I'm saying, I'm not speaking what is called hate speech.

I'm saying something that happened out loud to me. And what I'm saying is when I said DEFCON 3, what I was saying is I'm going to talk about all these things that I saw that just so happened to be by Jewish executives or Jewish friends of mine, where I saw people pulling my coattail, telling me behave, instantly running the narrative that you need to take your meds. Even this was not supposed to be this conversation. I don't get a clean platform to tell my truth without being my name, being called out my name, being called subtly called crazy. I haven't saying I'm out of control. Part of this thing is you got this. You got people on my ex-wife's side and this person, Tracy Romless, every day running a narrative.

This person's not even around me because I'm not saying what the media wants me to say. We're fighting. Yay. You're definitely saying what the media wants you to say because it drives headlines and clickbait because of how outrageous it is. What I'm saying is, I just hope that you're taking care of yourself, your kids and the people you care about, because what you're saying is not right and not fair for you to make the conversation to say okay did i say something it's unfair to make it be about oh are you taking care of yourself the reason why i repeated it a bunch of times saying for all of

my friends that are in the entertainment industry that are black actors, black athletes, and black musicians. One of the things that's interesting about the moment at the Fife funeral is there's so many black musicians signed to Jewish record labels. And those Jewish record labels take ownership not only of the publishing, like how MC Search is selling Nas Publishing right now, but also ownership of the culture itself. It's like, oh, that's mine. This guy signed to me. It's like a modern day slavery. And I'm calling it out. That's what DEFCON 3 meant. I'm going to call it out. It didn't mean I wish any harm on my fellow users. You're going DEFCON 3 on them. Look, I'm out of time on this. I wanted to give you a platform to explain it.

Wait a second. I just said what I meant. Did you want me to say what I meant? I hear you. You said what you meant. I'm just telling you how I take it and how I think other people are taking it. How you friends were Jewish. What do you mean take it?

I just came and said and explained this is what I meant by it. I meant I'm calling out all these contracts. I know, but just because you're calling it out doesn't mean it's true. It's just what your opinion is. That's all I'm saying. No, no. I'm talking about true things. If anyone else was in a position other than me to be able to call it out and would sacrifice themselves and take the risk, other people would say it.

I'm not the first person that said it. Or they just don't believe it. Why are you dismissing? I'm not dismiss first person that said it. Or they just don't believe it. Why are you dismissing? I'm not dismissing the point. I'm dismissing. I'm dismissing the suggestion that Jewish record producers are inherently bad and do bad things. When, as you said, in your own family lineage would suggest Jews have been fighting shoulder to shoulder with black Americans as part of the freedom battle since its inception. shoulder to shoulder with black Americans as part of the freedom battle since its inception. They've given their lives. They've given their money. They've given their political capital to help that cause. And you know that. And I'm sure you heard it from your parents.

So the idea that somehow they're out to get black people is just demonstrably false. But I got to go with that point, Ye. And I hope you appreciate the opportunity. You made the final point. When I said that, you just want to make sure that I'm OK. It's about my health. It's not about. I do believe that your health should be a concern for you and that you take care of it. It's about my health. It's not about my truth. It's not all about your health. I think that you believe these things.

And that's a problem. You know what? Do you think I felt free in this interview? Felt free? You got a tremendous amount of time on the number one show at News Nation. You should feel free. Thank you for telling me how I should feel. You just asked me. Yay. Thank you for telling me. Good luck to you. Well, that was a lot.

Thank you very much for listening. Please subscribe, follow, share with your friends. You have thoughts about what you heard. Please send your comments along. Take a look up there. There's an email. There's a phone number you can call. I take your calls. I respond to your calls. And think about the free agent gear because we're putting the money together and then collectively, we're going to crowdsource good opportunities to give it away. I'll see you next time.