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Music

Kanye West Finally Answers That Trump Question

In a new interview, the Chicago rapper responds to Jimmy Kimmel's question about whether he thinks Donald Trump cares about black people.
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Queens, US
Photo by Edward Berthelot/GC Images

Earlier this month, Jimmy Kimmel asked Kanye West what seemed like a pretty simple question. "You so famously and so powerfully said, 'George Bush doesn't care about black people.' It makes me wonder, what makes you think Trump does?" The rapper didn't have an answer, at least not before the show cut to commercial, much to his chagrin. It was a call out to his comments about the former president during the Hurricane Katrina telethon and a question many fans alike had been wondering after Kanye sported a Make America Great Again hat earlier this summer. As Pitchfork reports, today in an interview with 107.5 WGCI Chicago, West finally offered something of an explanation and an apology of sorts for his comments about slavery on TMZ.

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Since his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, it seemed like he had some time to internalize his answer.

I feel that [Trump] cares about the way black people feel about him, and he would like for black people to like him like they did when he was cool in the rap songs and all this. He will do the things that are necessary to make that happen because he’s got an ego like all the rest of us, and he wants to be the greatest president, and he knows that he can’t be the greatest president without the acceptance of the black community. So it’s something he's gonna work towards, but we’re gonna have to speak to him.

He also finally addresses his comments from a TMZ Live broadcast, where he suggested that slavery was a choice.

I have never really approached or addressed the slavery comment fully. And it's not something for me to over intellectualize. This is something about the fact that it hurt people's feelings and the way that I presented that piece of information. I could present in a way more calm way, but I was ramped up. And I apologize. That happens sometimes when people are—I'm not blaming mental health, but I'm explaining mental health.

Kanye seemed to be very reflective of his recent comments, and was even apologetic. "I don't know if I properly apologized for how the slavery comment made people feel," he said. "I'm sorry for the one-two effect of the MAGA hat into the slave comment, and I'm sorry for people that felt let down by that moment."

Kristin Corry is a staff writer for Noisey. Follow her on Twitter.