Kanye West Talks To Tucker Carlson About 'The Shirt'

'I thought the shirt was a funny shirt'

Kanye West on Thursday offered a simple explanation for his “White Lives Matter” t-shirt — saying he wore the controversial attire at a Paris fashion show because “they do.”

The NY Post reports the 45-year-old rapper doubled down on his decision to wear the shirt in an hour-long sit-down with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, where he also appeared shocked by the backlash the stunt caused.

“I do certain things from a feeling,” West said. “I just channel the energy, it just feels right. It’s using a gut instinct, a connection with God and just brilliance,” he said about wearing the shirt.

West, who now legally goes by the first name Ye, said his father had reached out to him about the shirt, which he found hilarious.

“I thought the shirt was a funny shirt. I thought the idea of wearing it was funny. And I said ‘Dad why do you think it’s funny?’ And he said ‘just a black man stating the obvious.’”

West has been criticized publicly by many — including Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson and supermodel Gigi Hadid — for wearing the shirt to his fashion show on Monday. Other models in the show wore the same shirt.

“They’re looking for an explanation — as an artist you don’t have to give an explanation but as a leader you do,” the “All of the Lights” rapper told Carlson.

“So the answer to why I wrote ‘White Lives Matter’ on a shirt is they do. It’s an obvious thing,” West said.

In the wake of the controversy, West’s contract with Adidas was reportedly “under review.”

When Carlson asked the “Gold Digger” rapper what he thought made the “White Lives Matter” statement so controversial, West blamed “a group mob” of “liberal nazis” as well as the media, which he said pushes white societal norms.

“Because the same people that have stripped us of an identity and labeled us as a color have told us what it means to be black and the vernacular you’re supposed to have,” he said. 

He told an anecdote about his father, a former Black Panther, facing racial discrimination growing up in Delaware as one of the only, if not the only, black family’s around. When his father attended an black university, West said his father was told by his black classmates that he “talked white.”