Ye West‘s controversial “Drink Champs” interview has been removed from YouTube and REVOLT.tv following co-host N.O.R.E.‘s apology.
The video was yanked after complaints from viewers that Ye, formerly Kanye West’s remarks about George Floyd and Jewish people were offensive.
Floyd died on May 25, 2020 during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ye claimed he was killed by a fentanyl overdose, not a cop kneeling on his neck.
Viewers pointed out the rapper’s comments about Jewish people “[owning] the Black voice”, and Black people “being signed to a record label, or having a Jewish manager, or being signed to a Jewish basketball team, or doing a movie on a Jewish platform like Disney.”
N.O.R.E., who won a BET Award for Best Hip-Hop Platform last month, apologized for giving Ye a platform to make harmful statements.
He tweeted:
“I just wanna be honest, I support freedom of speech. I support anybody, you know, not being censored. But I do not support anybody being hurt. I did not realize that the George Floyd statements on my show was so hurtful… I apologize to the George Floyd family. I apologize to anybody that was hurt by Kanye West’s comments.”
N.O.R.E. also apologized on Hot 97’s Ebro in the Morning. He told co-host Peter Rosenberg that he regrets losing control of the interview because he was too drunk to stop Ye.
“I have a relationship with Ye,” N.O.R.E. said. “When he was going through a lot of the things he was going through, he would call me and he would actually listen to me and take my advice. So I felt I could control the situation. I felt that I could control the interview, and learned early on that I didn’t. As a Black man, I feel like I failed.”
The retired rapper who calls himself a “journalist” added, “As a journalist, you’re really not supposed to have an opinion… you’re supposed to let people talk. And my biggest critique on Drink Champs is ‘N.O.R.E., you always cut people off!’ And this is the one time I didn’t cut the people, didn’t cut ’em off, and everyone’s mad.”
N.O.R.E. said, Ye told his producer that if he turned off the camera during the interview, he would walk out.
N.O.R.E. added: “I didn’t think he was going to spread this ideology. I didn’t think he was going to go there. I thought he was going to have a couple drinks. He smoked blunts with us. I thought it was going to be light-hearted.”
