Hear Kanye West Go Off on 'SNL' in This Leaked Rant
During his musical guest stint on this past weekend's episode of Saturday Night Live, self-proclaimed Greatest Artist Alive and professional Taylor Swift troll Kanye West performed two songs and announced the release of his long-awaited new album, The Life of Pablo. But, as with anything Kanye-related, it seems the SNL performance was not without drama of its own.
A recording obtained by Page Six captures the rapper during a "meltdown" (although this is positively polite by Kanye standards), which occurred after he found out that SNL had changed the stage for his performance at the last minute. "Look at that shit," he can be heard saying, "they took my fucking stage off of SNL without asking me. Now I'm bummed. That and Taylor Swift, fake ass." That last part echoes the controversial remark on his TLOP song "Famous" on which he declares that he "made that bitch famous."
Page Six writes that Kanye threatened to walk out before his performance, and Lorne Michaels had to personally calm him down (bet he loves doing that). "Now I ain't gonna do this, we're breaking the motherfucking internet," he can be overheard saying. "I went through six years of this fucking shit. Let's get to it, bro. Let's get to it, bro."
As with any good Kanye rant, it concludes with Yeezus listing all the people he is more influential than; namely, a number of people named Pablo and filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. "Are they fucking crazy, bro? By 50 percent. Stanley Kubrick, Apostle Paul, Picasso... fucking Picasso and Escobar. By 50 percent, more influential than any other human being."
"Don't fuck with me. Don't fuck with me. Don't fuck with me," he continues. "By 50 percent, dead or alive, by 50 percent for the next thousand years. Stanley Kubrick. Ye." (That explains the scrapped album titles Full Balmain Jacket and Dr. Pablo: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Kanye).
For the Kanye defenders out there, it should be noted that a source told Billboard the audio was from a private venting session directed at Kanye's team, not at SNL staffers, and that he was "blindsided" when dramatic stage changes were made 30 minutes before going live without his permission.
Plus, at least he was still in a good enough mood to rap battle Kyle Mooney. Can't 'Ye get a break?
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Anna Silman is a staff writer at Thrillist and she can't name one genius that ain't crazy. Find her on Twitter: @annaesilman.