N.O.R.E. apologizes for Ye’s George Floyd comments, video taken down
The co-host and co-founder of "Drink Champs" admitted during an interview on "The Breakfast Club" that he felt he failed his people by continuing the conversation despite West's remarks.
Kanye West is no stranger to controversy, but some of his comments Sunday about George Floyd are being denounced. Now N.O.R.E. — born Victor Santiago — who was interviewing West when he made the remarks, is apologizing for allowing them to air.
According to Variety, N.O.R.E., the co-host and co-founder of “Drink Champs” admitted during an interview Monday with “The Breakfast Club” that he felt he “failed my people” by continuing the conversation despite West’s contentious remarks on the show. He told host Charlamagne tha God that he could blame West but instead wanted to speak on “The Breakfast Club” in an effort to accept responsibility.
Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Revolt TV has since pulled the “Drink Champs” episode featuring West, also known as Ye.
“I want to be honest. I support freedom of speech” N.O.R.E. said, according to Variety. “I support anybody not being censored. But I do not support anybody being hurt. I did not realize that the George Floyd statements made by Kanye on my show were so hurtful. You have to realize that it was the first five minutes of the show — like when he walked in, he told my producer that if we stop filming, he’ll walk out. … so I wanted the man to speak.”
While N.O.R.E. challenged West about some of his remarks, he found himself on the receiving end of several angry social media responses following the interview.
During his talk with “The Breakfast Club,” N.O.R.E. didn’t specifically address West’s offensive remarks about Jews or his negative comments about Pete Davidson, the ex-boyfriend of West’s former wife, Kim Kardashian.
N.O.R.E. did, however, offer a general apology to anyone who was offended by West’s remarks.
“I don’t watch my own interviews because I know I’m great. But when I watched this one, I cringed. And I felt terrible. So I have to say that I am sorry to anybody who was hurt by his rhetoric, anybody who was hurt by his speech,” N.O.R.E. said, Variety reported.
Charlamagne gave N.O.R.E. a gentle reprimand for having West on the show in the first place and not questioning him earlier in the conversation, which was more than three hours long. He pointed out that he warned N.O.R.E. twice not to allow the interview.
N.O.R.E. emphasized that he did “check” West regarding some of the more inflammatory remarks made about George Floyd, particularly the assertion that Floyd died from a fentanyl overdose instead of being murdered by police officer Derek Chauvin.
The host refuted claims that some of West’s remarks were removed from the interview, maintaining that nothing was edited out.
“I want to apologize to the George Floyd family … I want to apologize to anyone who was hurt by someone saying something on my platform. … I do not want my people to think that I did not step up at the time, but if you watch the whole 3 hour and 38-minute interview, I represent for George Floyd and Black people five, six, seven times,” N.O.R.E. added, according to Variety.
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