It goes without saying that Kanye West has burned some bridges with his recent comments about Donald Trump and slavery. It the very least, he’s temporarily closed them: Radio stations don’t want to play his music for the time being, some friends unfollowed him on Twitter, and now, some of his collaborators don’t feel that comfortable working with him at the moment.
In a new Esquire interview, Talib Kweli talks about his relationship with Kanye, and says that he’d have a hard time hitting the studio with him in light of the things Kanye has been saying:
“I would find it difficult working with Kanye on music right now with his position on Trump and Candace Owens and his repeating white supremacist lines on black-on-black crime and slavery is a choice. I love him as a man, and I love him as an artist, but I would find it difficult co-signing him right now until he walks some of that stuff back.”
He also said that when Kweli talked to Kanye about how harmful he thinks Candace Owens, a conservative figure for whom Kanye has expressed support, is, he was disheartened by the response he got:
“When Candace Owens came after me and I dismissed her, I was attacked on Twitter by racist Candace Owens fans. I had death threats, I had people calling me ‘n****r,’ I had people calling me ‘monkey.’ When Kanye said, ‘I like how Candace Owens thinks,’ I texted him and explained to him who she was and how she comes after his friends. And his response to me was, ‘You know I love Donald Trump.’
That was a very disappointing and hurtful response. He’s a grown man he has a right to say that. What was disappointing and hurtful about it was that I didn’t mention Donald Trump. But the fact that he needed to express his love for Donald Trump but not express any love for me was hurtful”
Kweli and Kanye (as well as Yasiin Bey) were all seen together earlier this year, but after Kanye’s heel turn, who knows what will come of that collaboration.
