Los Angeles: Rapper Kanye West delivered a political-themed speech on ‘Saturday Night Live’ after the broadcast ended. The artiste, who was the musical guest on the 44th season premiere of the NBC show, wore a ‘Make America Great Again’ cap in a segment that was cut from airing time.
According to Variety, West remained on stage after his performance and broke into a pro-Trump address, which was captured by social media users in the audience. His speech was filmed and posted to Instagram by comedian Chris Rock, who was in the crowd at the taping.
“So many times I talk to a white person and (they) say, ‘How could you like Trump, he’s racist?’ Well, if I was concerned about racism I would’ve moved out of America a long time ago,” he said. The rapper, who declared his new name as ‘Ye’ ahead of his “SNL” performance, said it was only through love that the world could move ahead.
“You wanna see the sunken place? Okay, Im’ a listen to y’all now. I’m a put my superman cape on, because this means you can’t tell me what to do… You want the world to move forward? Try love,” he said. West said people need to engage in dialogue rather than diatribe to solve matters.
“You’ve got a situation where you need to have a dialogue and not a diatribe… It’s easy to make it seem like it’s so, so, so one-sided,” he said in his speech. The rapper also briefly alluded to plans of running for political office in 2020.
The address bore reminiscence to his recent controversial statements on racism and his support to US President Donald Trump, among others. West thanked the show for the platform even though “some of y’all don’t agree” and then began singing, “Try love” as he led the band back into the song as he walked offstage.
Earlier, he said, “They’re laughing at me. You heard them? They screamed at me. They bully me. They bullied me backstage. They said ‘Don’t go out there with that hat on.’ They bullied me backstage. They bullied me.”
An eyewitness told the publication, “The entire studio fell dead silent (as West spoke).” The audience booed him at least twice. On Sunday, Trump tweeted his approval of West’s speech while slamming “SNL.”
“I don’t watch Saturday Night Live (even though I past hosted it). No longer funny, no talent or charm. It is just a political ad for the Dems. Word is that Kanye West, who put on a MAGA hat after the show (despite being told ‘no’), was great. He’s leading the charge!” he tweeted.