Ye Thought Wearing a White Lives Matter Shirt Would Be ‘Funny’

And the Kanye West news cycle continues. Fresh off of a week of headlines from all angles, Ye decided to appear on Fox News to talk about his latest controversy. During Paris Fashion Week, the rapper joined right-wing darling Candace Owens and several models in wearing “White Lives Matter” shirts at a Yeezy catwalk. “I thought the shirt was a funny shirt, I thought the idea of me wearing it was funny,” Ye told Tucker Carlson in the first of a two-part interview, adding that he put “White Lives Matter” on the shirts “because they do. It’s the obvious thing.” The phrase, born in response to the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality, has been described by the Anti-Defamation League as a white supremacist hate slogan. Ye’s choice to display it on his clothing has drawn criticism from the likes of Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, Gigi Hadid, and Jaden Smith. Adidas is reviewing their partnership with the artist as well.

Ye previously experienced similar backlash for wearing Make America Great Again hats and supporting Donald Trump. “My so-called friends-slash-handlers around me told me if I said that I liked Trump that my career would be over, that my life would be over,” he told Carlson. “They said stuff like, ‘People get killed for wearing a hat like that.’ They threatened my life.” For this interview, he made another pointed apparel choice and wore a lanyard with an ultrasound on it to represent his pro-life beliefs. When asked about the response he’s gotten to his views, Ye said, perhaps unsurprisingly, “I don’t care about people’s reactions.”