Kanye West repeatedly says “I love you” in bizarre phone call to NYC radio station

Kanye West is weeks away from dropping five new albums: a solo LP and a collaborative record with Kid Cudi in addition to releases from Nas, Pusha T, and Tenaya Taylor, all of which he produced himself. In anticipation, the hip-hop eccentric reactivated his Twitter account and has been posting missives pulled from his philosophy book, prototypes of his Yeezy sneakers, and tweets in which he expressed admiration for right-wing thinkers such Candace Owens and Dilbert creator Scott Adams. It’s the latter that has caused a bit of awkwardness between Kanye’s staunch, primarily left-leaning fans and commentators like Alex Jones, Bill O’Reilly, and Charlie Kirk, who have championed Kanye as a new-found ally in the Conservative movement. That awkwardness was compounded on Monday when Hot 97’s Ebro relayed a conversation he had with Kanye over the weekend in which he apparently told Ebro that he “loves” Donald Trump. Kanye, of course, was photographed with Trump in the lobby of Trump Tower following his presidential victory in 2016.

Earlier today, Kanye once again rang up Ebro as he was broadcasting live on air. It was not to clarify his position, however; rather, Kanye repeatedly told Ebro, “I love you” (he did so seven times, in fact). When Ebro asked if they could talk about Kanye’s new music, he responded, “We should meet up in person and then we can talk on the radio afterwards,” before adding, “I just wanted to call and say I love you.” Listen below.

Kanye’s album cycle is less than a week old, and already we’re reminded how damn hard it is to defend this guy.