The rapper is igniting controversy following his remarks that slavery was "a choice."
There is intense reaction over Kanye West's shocking meltdown during Tuesday's TMZ interview.
Drawing particular anger is the "All Falls Down" rapper's jaw-dropping comments about slavery and how it was "a choice."
"When you hear about slavery for 400 years — for 400 years? That sounds like a choice," he said.
After West made the remarks, a TMZ staffer told the rapper off.
Van Lathan stood up in the newsroom and told West that what he was doing is "the absence of thought."
He added that there is "real-world, real-life consequence behind everything that you just said."
Lathan went on: "And while you are making music and being an artist and living the life that you've earned by being a genius, the rest of us in society have to deal with these threats to our lives. We have to deal with the marginalization that has come from the 400 years of slavery that you said, for our people, was a choice.
"Frankly, I'm disappointed, I'm appalled and, brother, I am unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something, to me, that's not real."
On CNN Tuesday night, Don Lemon said he was ashamed to even discuss the topic.
"So to be clear — I can't believe I have to say this — black and brown people who were enslaved had absolutely no choice," he said.
Black Eyed Peas member Will.I.Am took Kanye to task on Twitter.
"A choice is when there are options," he wrote. "Please tell me the options our ancestors had???"
On her show Wednesday, Wendy Williams said West "has gone too far."
Author and CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill also lashed out on West's words via Twitter.
"There has NEVER been a moment in history when Black people didn't resist slavery," he said. "Some did it by jumping off ships. Some killed masters. Some ran away. Some did it through everyday forms of resistance. Slave masters didn't retire. Our resistance led to our freedom."
West is now doing his best to walk back on his comments.
"To make myself clear. Of course I know that slaves did not get shackled and put on a boat by free will," he tweeted. "My point is for us to have stayed in that position even though the numbers were on our side means that we were mentally enslaved."
Movie director Spike Lee wasn't buying it.
"Would Not Be Surprised If OUR Ancestors Are Not Pleased With Your Uneducated Comments. P.S. Your Retraction Does Not Undue (sic) The Harm You Cause To Our Beloved ANCESTORS. WAKE UP," he said on a lengthy statement on Instagram.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came to West’s defense.
"People should be able to express their views," she said on the Fox Business Network. "Not all of us have to think politically the same way."
During his bizarre TMZ interview, West also revealed that he suffered from an opioid addiction when he was hospitalized in 2016.
"I was drugged the f*** out," he said. "I was addicted to opioids. I had plastic surgery because I was trying to look good for y'all."
His mother, Donda West, died in 2007 shortly after liposuction and other cosmetic surgery.
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