Kanye West isn’t the most reliable source for all things Kanye West. He’s known to be a bit of an exaggerator, but it looks like the story behind The Life Of Pablo standout “Real Friends” was true. Kanye’s cousin Lawrence Franklin spoke to The Daily Mail and confirmed that Kanye did pay another cousin $250,000 for a laptop with a sex tape on it.
Franklin said that Kanye had gifted a family member the laptop, who then let another family member borrow it. When that unnamed family member discovered a video of Kanye having sex with a “fair-skinned black woman” he called a lawyer and looked to cash in.
“He put together a small team him and his attorney went after Kanye, and to show that they meant business they leaked a little information publicly to let it be know they indeed had the footage,” Franklin said. “The family member tried to keep a low profile but it was not long before Kanye’s team learned who it was that had the sex tape.”
Franklin said that this incident led Kanye to cut himself off from his family, and believes that that led to his recent breakdown.
“The sex tape episode started his decline — he stopped trusting people,” Franklin told the paper. “At the end of the day if a member of your family had taken you for a quarter of a million dollars — so they can complete their own ambitions — who can you trust within your circle?”
Franklin added that West would not be in his current situation if his mother hadn’t passed away in 2007.
“If she was here today she would do nothing but love on him and encourage him and uplift him and be by his side,” he said. “But to be honest, if she was here today he probably wouldn’t be going through all this because she was his rock. That’s the truth.”
Check out the whole interview at The Daily Mail and don’t miss “Real Friends” (and the rest of TLOP) on our list of the years’ best albums.
