Kanye West apologizes for slavery comments, answers Kimmel’s Trump question in new interview

Kanye West stopped by for an interview with 107.5 WGCI Chicago on Wednesday morning. As Pitchfork points out, West gave his thoughts on Donald Trump's views on black people, a question he was famously silent for when Jimmy Kimmel asked him during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and also discussed his controversial "slavery was a choice" comments on TMZ.

Kanye first gave his response to Kimmel's question, which he said he was initially silent for because he was taking "time to think." On air, Kanye said: “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... 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.”

Addressing the TMZ incident, Kanye first said that he "never really approached or addressed the slavery comment fully," and discussed it in relation to his mental well-being. "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.

"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. And I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to talk to you about the way I was thinking and what I was going through."

It's a pivot from the much loftier view Kanye had of the TMZ comments as recently as June, when he claimed in an interview with The New York Times that he'd been taken out of context, and that he wasn't backing down. "If you look at the clip you see the way my mind works," he todl the paper.