Saturday Night Live aired its 44th season premiere last night. With host Adam Driver, a killer opening sketch with Matt Damon as Brett Kavanaugh, and musical guest Kanye West, it was shaping up to be a great episode.
Then the cameras turned off, and Kanye opened his mouth.
As the show wrapped, and the crew said their good nights, Kanye took center stage and delivered an unexpected monologue while wearing a Make America Great Again cap and insisting the cast stand on stage with him.
His opinions? Controversial to say the least.
Wowwwww only 3 people clapped. Chris Rock is laughing At @kanyewest pic.twitter.com/jAGP5OwKXD
— 2cool2blog (@2Cool2Bloggg) September 30, 2018
The above video, captured by a chuckling Chris Rock, shows West standing center in front of the SNL cast.
Many cast members rolled their eyes and avoided looking at the audience as Kanye awkwardly sang his way into a rant about Trump and America.
“I wanna cry right now, black man in America, supposed to keep what you’re feelin’ inside right now…”
“The blacks want always Democrats… you know it’s like the plan they did, to take the fathers out the home and put them on welfare… does anybody know about that? That’s a Democratic plan,” he continued. “There’s so many times I talk to, like, a white person about this and they say, ‘How could you like Trump? He’s racist.’ Well, uh, if I was concerned about racism I would’ve moved out of America a long time ago.”
“You see they laughing at me. You heard ’em, they scream at me, they bully me. They bullied me backstage they said, ‘Don’t go out there with that hat on.’ They bullied me backstage. They bullied me. And then they say I’m in a sunken place. You want to see the sunken place? Okay, I’ma listen to y’all now.”
You can actually hear the three people clapping and the much louder boos coming through.
“And what this shows is we can’t be controlled by monolithic thought. You can’t always have when you have a black subject matter like Cosby that you have to have a black comedian talk about it.”
Amidst all the rambling, the newly self-named “Ye” dropped a hint about his potential plans for 2020.
“But this man is a builder. And when I said I’m running in 2020, all my smart friends talked so much s— about me. And when I saw that man win, I said, ‘See, I told you. I could have been there.’”
People on Twitter had a lot to say about Kanye’s “monologue.”
There isn’t any bravery in this, Kanye isn’t losing anything. If he makes good music people will still support. Stop trying to make Kanye a story. https://t.co/gODMs9Q1Qo
— Jose Arroyo (@Turtle4Pres) September 30, 2018
Supporting an unpopular president isn’t the act of a boundary pushing artist. The two have nothing to do with one another. Kanye’s art isn’t boldly aligned with conservative principles when all he does it wear a damn hat. Have you heard his new art? He’s still rapping about sex.
— I’m Gary (@noyokono) September 30, 2018
woke up to no yhandi but a load of drama. thanks kanye. pic.twitter.com/feKy9rWImG
— ✧ (@gasoIineon) September 30, 2018
Tonight’s SNL was the best in ages EXCEPT for everything Kanye. Seriously he dressed up as a water bottle, why exactly? ?
— Scott Tompkins (@st0mpki1) September 30, 2018
@nbcsnl made a huge mistake bringing him it was awful his whole performance, something is wrong with him.
— Ruth Maia Schultz??❤????????????? (@MissRuth1979) September 30, 2018
Finally, to cap off his Sunday, Kanye then Tweeted this morning:
this represents good and America becoming whole again. We will no longer outsource to other countries. We build factories here in America and create jobs. We will provide jobs for all who are free from prisons as we abolish the 13th amendment. Message sent with love pic.twitter.com/a15WqI8zgu
— ye (@kanyewest) September 30, 2018
It’s important to note Kanye was not the original musical guest for the SNL premiere. Ariana Grande was originally set to perform, but West was called in as a last minute replacement.
His new album, Yandhi, was set to release this weekend, but we don’t know how many people will pick up a copy.
H/T: People, The Daily Beast
