Kanye West Octuples Down On Anti-Semitism, Celebrates ‘Vultures’ Success

In case anyone was wondering, Kanye West has zero regrets about his anti-Semitic comments and believes that he can’t be canceled given the success of his latest album Vultures. The Chicago producer gave his explanation to TMZ during a quick in-person conversation on Monday (Feb. 12).

“We one, we one, we one!” he repeated enthusiastically, referencing the fact that his collaborative effort with Ty Dolla $ign is No. 1 on iTunes. He was asked about making $19 million off of his Super Bowl LVIII ad and went into a rant about how multiple companies did not want to work with him. Ye also revealed that he was “two months from going bankrupt” and ended up moving to Italy to put his all into Yeezy products.

“We survived, we survived through the cancelation,” he said. The TMZ reporter asked if he felt that the controversy helped him, and West countered with, “It wasn’t about the controversy. It was about the ability to say how you felt out loud. And if I didn’t have the various skill sets of music, and clothing, and a fanbase, they would have been able to destroy me. But because we had all those skill sets, somehow I’m here inside of this universe able to fight.”

Kanye West was asked about his thoughts on people who “resent” his success due to his recent incendiary comments. “That’s the whole thing. They got the right to their opinion, I got the right to my opinion,” he said. “We all have the rights to our opinions but so many people will lose their jobs, lose their careers, for taking the steps that we took. We went down for like a year and a half. You know, people think that I got kicked out of Adidas for the [Swastika] tweet. We were having problems before. They were stealing my designs. They’re still trying to sue me.”

Getting back to his recent comments, Ye felt like he was being the voice of those who weren’t willing to be as honest and reveled in the fact that he still had support. “Everybody felt what I felt,” he said. “I even said the apology and [my fans] still f**k with me. Some of the [anti-semitic] stuff I was saying was true. So until y’all come up and say, ‘Yo, what he was saying, some of that was true’ then go ahead with all that!”

He was asked straight up if he takes back any of what he said and doubled down on his belief that Black people can’t be anti-Semitic. “We are Jew!” he said emphatically. “So cool out. Until you do your facts, until you really do the facts with the fake indoctrination that y’all put into the schools and all that, we not following y’all rules.” He did apologize to all of the Jewish kids who love him and had to hear a “grown-up conversation” where people screamed at one another, but said things got to a point where “something needed to happen.”

Kanye West admitted to not delivering his message the best way. “But it got to a point where y’all ain’t going to just keep running calling me bizarre and impressed for all these years,” he said. “How many more times y’all gonna call me crazy? How many more times y’all gonna give me fake medication that makes me fat off of a misdiagnosis when I really have slight signs of autism from the car accident? But y’all said, ‘Whatever, give him that bipolar medication.’ Y’all try to kill the superheroes!”

Ye was also asked about what’s going on in Palestine and admitted to not having enough information. He got a bit combative as his response continued, stating that he was a “ni**a from the Southside of Chicago” and born in Atlanta. While he has love for everybody, he is more concerned about the 14 kids dying in his city every week and would rather be asked about that. Check out the full conversation with TMZ above.

More from VIBE.com