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WATCH: Trevor Noah says he is not ‘beefing’ with Kanye West
Even after Kanye West threw insults in Trevor Noah's direction, 'The Daily Show' host says he still loves the rapper.
Pictures: Instagram / JEAN-BAPTISTE LACROIX / AFP
The world might have turned their backs on rapper Kanye West, but South-African comedian and host of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah says he still loves Ye for the man he thinks he is.
This is despite the comments Kanye recently made about Noah, saying Trevor was not even from America and that he just “looks black”.
Kanya has been exhibiting concerning behaviour in the past year, with fans having been especially concerned when Ye launched a social media attack against his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian’s ex-boyfriend comedian Pete Davidson in February this year.
ALSO SEE: Kanye West bashes Kim’s bae Pete Davidson in series of Insta posts
His erratic behaviour didn’t stop there though. Earlier this month Ye’s Twitter and Instagram accounts were first restricted and later suspended after the rapper violated the social media platforms’ policies.
In the tweet, which is no longer visible on West’s account, the rapper said, “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” in an apparent reference to a US military readiness code known as DEFCON.
The social media giants told AFP earlier this month that they deleted content – without specifying which posts, from Kanye’s timelines because the content violated their rules.
ALSO SEE: Instagram, Twitter restrict Kanye West accounts over posts deemed anti-Semitic
The latest company to give Ye the boot is fashion house Balenciaga who announced on Friday that it will be cutting ties with Kanye.
“Balenciaga has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist,” the brand’s parent firm Kering said in a brief statement Friday, October 21, 2022.
‘I am not ‘beefing’ with Kanye
Noah was answering a member of the audience, who wanted to know why he ‘is beefing with Ye’, while shooting a segment of The Daily Show.
Noah said that he wasn’t ‘beefing’ with Kanye, but admitted that he is concerned about him.
“I am genuinely concerned. If someone says to me or to anyone that they have a mental health issue, and they say to me and everyone else that when they don’t take their medication, they are unable to control themselves and then everyone ignores when that person is having an episode and they haven’t taken their medication, and you then give that person a platform, I sometimes think it is a little sh*tty to be honest with you.
“My grandfather was bipolar, I’m not saying Kanye is, but my grandfather was and we knew that when he was having an episode he could act in certain ways or do certain things like take the family car and drive off. But our job was to support him and to make sure he takes his medication, not to make him go viral for his behaviour.”
Noah further stated that he has never in any of his comments said that he has beef with Kanye, only that he is concerned about him.
“I grew up loving Kanye. He is one of the few hip-hop artists who shaped the way I see music. The punchlines he had in every single song, it was like listening to comedy. He [Kanye] loves stand-up comedy. I grew up loving this man, I still love him, despite the sh*t he talks. So, for me it’s not a beef.”
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‘Americans enjoy acting like they don’t see what’s happening’
Trevor said growing up in South Africa, he grew up in a space where people will tell you to your face if you are going off the rails.
“We’re not going to act like we’re not seeing what you are doing.” He added that he sometimes feels that Americans enjoy doing that. “They see it, they see it, they see it and then something really bad happens, they say ‘ah I wish we had spoken about it; I wish someone had said something.”
“For me, I think there are elements when Ye knows he is being an assh*le, he has admitted this. He knows when he is pushing the envelope. But I don’t have beef with someone who has expressed that he has a mental health issue. What I do have beef with is us as a society not coming together around a person and saying ‘hi, hi, maybe this is not the moment to put a microphone in your face so that you just go off saying everything. If this is what you want to say when you are on your medication, then that’s a different story.”
Trevor said he completely understands if Kanye wants to process what he said as ‘beef’, but reiterated that he doesn’t have beef with the rapper.
“I am still playing College Drop Out, I am still playing the music. I still love the man that I think he is and I understand that he has gone through a lot and I don’t take that for granted.
But I promised myself that I will never just be the person who sits by and gleefully says things about people that I care about and then also join the group of mourners afterwards and act like I wasn’t part of it. Too many people mourn you when you are dead and they don’t say anything while you are alive,” Noah concluded.
