LeBron James' Show Pulls Episode Featuring Kanye West Because of the 'Extremely Dangerous' Words He Used
An interview with Kanye West will not air on the LeBron James talk show “The Shop” due to “dangerous” statements made by the entertainer, according to a news report.
Maverick Carter, SpringHill Company CEO and the show’s co-producer with James, revealed the decision Tuesday, according to Andscape.
“Yesterday we taped an episode of ‘The Shop’ with Kanye West. Kanye was booked weeks ago and, after talking to Kanye directly the day before we taped, I believed he was capable of a respectful discussion and he was ready to address all his recent comments,” he said.
“Unfortunately, he used ‘The Shop’ to reiterate more hate speech and extremely dangerous stereotypes,” he said.
Carter said James’ show will not use anything from the session.
‘We have made the decision not to air this episode or any of Kanye’s remarks. While The Shop embraces thoughtful discourse and differing opinions, we have zero tolerance for hate speech of any kind and will never allow our channels to be used to promote hate,” he said.
“I take full responsibility for believing Kanye wanted a different conversation and apologize to our guests and crew. Hate speech should never have an audience,” he said.
Andscape said that sources it did not identify said West made anti-Semitic remarks during the taping.
West has been in hot water for other recent comments.
In a remark that was not included in West’s interview last week with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, West riffed on the fact that the school his children attend celebrates Kwanzaa, according to Vice.
“I prefer my kids knew Hanukkah than Kwanzaa. At least it will come with some financial engineering,” he said.
That was not the only reference to Jews, including one West said he wanted to be edited out almost as soon as he finished saying it.
“Think about us judging each other on how white we could talk would be like, you know, a Jewish person judging another Jewish person on how good they danced or something,” he said.
The full interview also included West talking about the future.
“I have visions that God gives me, just over and over, on community building and how to build these free energy, kinetic, fully kinetic energy communities where we impress—we put the least impression on the earth. We’re not building the new New York skyline cockfight. That we are humble in the way that we present ourselves. We’ve got to rethink who we are as a species,” he said.
West, who has been in the spotlight for the past two weeks since wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt at his Paris fashion show, was recently banned from Twitter and Instagram, according to The Washington Post.
The Twitter ban followed a tweet in which West said he would “go ‘death con 3’ on ‘JEWISH PEOPLE,’ an apparent reference to Defcon, the U.S. military defense readiness system,” the Post reported.
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