During the interview, with West calling in from the back of a poorly-lit vehicle, the rapper argued that the term “anti-Semitic” has allowed people “to get away with murder sometimes, literally.
“People always say, ‘I got screwed on a deal.’ Would that come as a surprise to you if I said, ‘Hey, a music exec screwed someone on our deal?’ Does that sound kind of like normal commonplace to you?” he added, before repeating the Black Hebrew Israelite belief that African-Americans are the true descendants of ancient Israelites.
West added that he does not believe in the term “anti-Semitic,” and that he cannot be an anti-Semite because “black people are also Jew, I classify as Jew also.”
In response to questions about his mental health, he said it was “unfair to make it be about, ‘Oh, are you taking care of yourself?’
“The reason why I repeated it a bunch of times and for all of my friends that are in the entertainment energy industry that are black actors, black athletes and black musicians…there’s so many black musicians signed to Jewish record labels, and those Jewish record labels take ownership, not only of the publishing…but also ownership of the culture itself,” he continued. “It’s like, ‘Oh, that’s mine.’ This guy signed to me. It’s like modern-day slavery. And I’m calling it out. That’s what ‘DEFCON three’ meant. I’m gonna call it out. It didn’t mean to wish any harm on [anyone].”
Unlike other journalists who have interviewed West in recent days, Cuomo repeatedly pushed back against the musician’s anti-Semitic comments.
“Look, there is no Jewish media cabal mafia. That is a figment of either your imagination or a projection of a prejudice,” Cuomo said. “You may have had bad business dealings with people—it’s about those people. It’s not about their religion or faith. And I know that you’re intelligent and understand that when you target people because of their faith, other people may do so the same. They’ve been targeted before, they’ve been abused and killed because of what they believe and who they are.”
“And I don’t tolerate it as a black person,” West said, interrupting Cuomo. “What you just said was that you’re trying to say that there isn’t a collective—over 50 percent of the executives and CEOs in Hollywood are Jewish. You can’t tell me what to do or feel.”
Cuomo responded, “That’s different than saying it’s a mafia and that they act as Jews in some way as opposed to just being businessmen. One plays to a prejudice, the other one just plays to people and an ugly business which is what the record business is.”
The full interview can be found at NewsNation.
