A resurfaced 2005 interview shows Kanye West calling on hip-hop artists to stop discriminating against gay people. (YouTube/ MTV News)
Kanye West described the moment he stopped “discriminating against gays” in powerful resurfaced interview from 2005.
In August 2005, Kanye West gave an interview to MTV News‘ Sway Calloway in which he addressed discrimination in hip-hop, and his own history of homophobia.
In the clip, he revealed that when he was in high school, people would call him “gay” and accuse him of “acting like a f*g”.
“It made me homophobic,” he said. “I would question myself, why does everybody else walk like this and I walk like this?”
He continued: “If you see something and you don’t want to be that because there’s such a negative connotation towards it, you try to separate yourself from it so much that it made me homophobic by the time I was through with high school.”
West explained that he reached a point where he didn’t even want to be near someone that was gay, and added: “It’s like I was racing to try to find that constant masculine role model, to the point where I would really discriminate.
“I would use the word ‘f*g, f*g, f*g, f*g,’ always condescending towards gays, and looked down upon gays.”
Kanye West’s attitude towards gay people turned a corner when his cousin came out as gay
Kanye West said that his attitude towards gay people began to change when his cousin came out as gay.
He recalled: “At that point, it was the turning point where I was like, ‘Yo, this is my cousin and I love him and I’ve been discriminating against gays.’ Do I discriminate against my cousin?
“Then everything starts to click, you know, he brings his partner with him to Thanksgiving and all that, and I just had to sit back and think.”
After that moment, West realised that he had fallen into the widespread anti-LGBT+ discrimination within the hip-hop industry.
“Hip-hop really was about fighting for your rights, in the beginning. About speaking your mind, and about breaking down barriers,” he said.
“But everybody in hip-hop discriminates against gay people, that’s one of the standards of hip-hop.”
During the MTV interview, West looked directly into the camera and said: “Me speaking for my entire culture, me looking at my rappers out there, hip-hop is discriminating against gay people.
“I really wanna say this, I really wanna say this to America. I wanted to just come on TV and tell my rappers, just tell my friends, ‘Stop it, fam.’
“Seriously, that’s really discrimination. To me, that’s exactly what they used to do to Black people. I just trying to tell people to just stop all that.”
The Kanye West interview resurfaced as DaBaby faces blistering backlash for his homophobic rant
The Kanye West interview was resurfaced on social media in light of recent homophobic comments made by hip-hop artist DaBaby.
its funny you mention kanye west, in an older interview he asked ‘why are gay people always the targets’ hes fucking coolhttps://t.co/4aXTJI2gpZ
— Nick W (@NickProducing) August 2, 2021
Now this was someone who was open to being educated and realised how wrong his views were. Shame more hip hop artists aren’t the same way.
— Caz (@Caz68087525) August 5, 2021
DaBaby has faced blistering backlash for delivering a homophobic rant at a gig last month, in which he made horrendous comments about “sucking d**k” in the parking lot and people dying from HIV.
Contrasting the two artists, one Twitter responded to West’s resurfaced interview: “Now this was someone who was open to being educated and realised how wrong his views were.”