Kanye West’s episode on “The Shop” is cancelled
Maverick Carter, CEO of the SpringHill Company, revealed in an exclusive statement to Andscape that the recently taped episode of The Shop featuring Kanye West will not air.
“Yesterday we taped an episode of The Shop with Kanye West. 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.
We have made the decision not to air this episode or any of Kanye’s remarks. While The Shop embraces thoughtful discourse and differing opinions, we have zero tolerance for hate speech of any kind and will never allow our channels to be used to promote hate.
I take full responsibility for believing Kanye wanted a different conversation and apologize to our guests and crew. Hate speech should never have an audience.”
According to sources on set, West expanded on his recent anti-Semitic comments in this episode. In addition to Jeezy and shoe designer Salehe Bembury, who both appeared on West’s Grammy-nominated 2008 album “Put On,” the event also featured a number of other special guests. Notably absent from this recording was LeBron James.
For West, the shelved episode of The Shop is just the latest in a series of strange media moments over the past week. A recent controversy erupted after West debuted “White Lives Matter” t-shirts at his Paris Fashion Week fashion presentation. The former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Sherrilyn Ifill, has deemed West’s comments to be “dangerous.”
His interview with Tucker Carlson Tonight on FOX News on October 6 included discussions on abortion in the Black community, being a political outsider, the body image of guest Lizzo, and, of course, his ex-wife Kim Kardashian.
A ban was placed on West’s social media after he posted a screenshot of a text exchange with Sean “Diddy” Combs (in which West threatened to use Diddy as “an example” to the Jewish people) and later tweeted that he intended to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” Motherboard published previously unseen footage from West’s discussion with Carlson on Tuesday. West’s anti-Semitic rhetoric was evident in the unedited recordings.