Kanye West won’t back down.
The 45-year-old rapper joined Tucker Carlson on Thursday night for an interview on Fox News and defended the controversial “White Lives Matter” T-shirts he showed on his Yeezy Season 9 runway during Paris Fashion Week Monday.
“They are looking for an explanation – as an artist you don’t have to give an explanation, but as a leader you do,” said West, who legally changed his name to Ye in 2021.
“So the answer to why I wrote ‘White Lives Matter’ on a shirt is, they do. It’s an obvious thing.”
Several fashion insiders in attendance left Ye’s show upon seeing the shirts, including Jaden Smith.
After Vogue editor and stylist Gabriella-Karefa Johnson called the designs “highly offensive, violent and dangerous,” West publicly ridiculed her personal style, leading more in the industry — including Gigi Hadid and Hailey Baldwin — to jump to her defense and criticize West. .
However, sources told Vidak For Congress Style that Ye is stunned by the negative response to his collection and thinks it’s a “PC thing”.
In his interview with Carlson, he blamed “a group of gangs” of “liberal Nazis” for the resistance he faced.
“I do certain things out of a feeling,” West said. “I just channel the energy, it just feels good. It uses a gut feeling, a connection to God and just genius.”
Ye even said his father, a former Black Panther, appreciated the T-shirts.
“I thought the shirt was a funny shirt,” West said. “I thought the idea of wearing it was funny. And I said, ‘Dad, why do you think it’s funny?’ And he said, ‘Just a black man saying the obvious.’”
And despite his deal with Adidas being jeopardized, West makes no apologies and plans to continue wearing (and distributing) the shirts.
“Last night I got a call from someone who said, ‘Anyone who wears a ‘White Lives Matter’ shirt will be lit up in green.” That means they’re going to beat them up if they wear it,” he told Carlson.
“I’m like, you know, ‘Okay, give me the green light then.'”