Van Lathan shared that Kanye West infamous meltdown at TMZ went much further saying saying “Slavery was a choice.”
It looks like Kanye West’s recent anti-Semitic remarks have been a part of his belief system for some time now. That’s according to Van Lathan, who has revealed that Ye allegedly professed his love for Adolf Hitler and Nazis during his infamous visit to TMZ in 2018.
That’s the same visit that angered many in the black community after he said that slavery was a choice. Lathan made the claims yesterday, October 11, on his Higher Learning podcast. The host revealed that while he was at the TMZ office, he brought up the Holocaust to use as a reference to explain to Kanye why his comments were so enraging.
However, he said that Kanye West responded that he loved both Hitler and the Nazis. He also claimed that those parts of the interview had been edited out, and that’s why the comments never came to light.
“If you look at what I said at TMZ, it goes from me saying like, ‘Hey Kanye, there’s real-life, real-world implication to everything that you just said there.’ What I say after that — if I can remember, it’s been a long time — was, ’12 million people actually died because of Nazism and Hitler and all of that stuff,’ and then I move on to talk about what he said about slavery,” he shared during the podcast.
He further explained that the reason they took it out was that it wouldn’t have made sense unless they kept Kanye saying he loved Hitler and the Nazis.
The “Runaway” rapper caused further controversy at TMZ as, according to Lathan, a Jewish staff member challenged Kanye West over his comments about Hitler and Nazis. The person said they were offended by the comments.
While the rest of the hip-hop community expressed their displeasure with Kanye’s recent comments, Lathan said it came as little surprise. Van Lathan said after his interaction, he expected the issue to surface soon.
Lathan’s comments come in the wake of Kanye West’s Instagram and Twitter accounts being restricted due to anti-Semitic posts.
In a Direct Message conversation with Diddy shared on Instagram last week, he claimed Puff was being turned against him by Jewish people. Diddy had taken umbrage to Ye’s “White Lives Matter” shirt, which he wore during Paris Fashion Week.
Even though he’s been restricted on both social media platforms, it seems he’s intent on continuing with his antisemitic rants as his appearance on LeBron James’ YouTube series The Shop earlier this week has been pulled.
“Kanye was booked weeks ago and, after talking to Kanye directly the day before we taped, I believed he was capable of a respectful discussion and he was ready to address all his recent comments. Unfortunately, he used The Shop to reiterate more hate speech and extremely dangerous stereotypes,” Maverick Carter announced in a statement.
Carter added that they made the decision not to air this episode or any of Kanye’s remarks. He also said that while The Shop embraces thoughtful discourse and differing opinions, they have zero tolerance for hate speech and will never allow our channels to be used to promote hate.
