Diddy has spoken out in defense of his ‘freethinking’ friend Kanye West after the rapper supported the White Lives Matter sloganbut he disagrees with the sentiment.
Grammy-winning rapper Kanye has sparked outrage after wearing a shirt to his Yeezy SZN9 fashion show with ‘White Lives Matter’ printed on the back. He was accompanied by a controversial political pundit and Donald Trump supporter Candace Owens, who also wore the top alongside Kanye’s Yeezy models.
The 45-year-old rapper has been criticized from all quarters, with Jaden Smith leaving the fashion show and model Gigi Hadid condemning the musician and actress. Jodie Turner-Smith described the move as ‘disgusting’.
Kanye has redoubled his support for the White Lives Matter slogan and has even labeled Black Lives Matter a “scam.”
His good friend Diddy, real name Sean Combs, has now shared his thoughts on the controversy and while defending his friend, he has also made it clear that he supports the BLM movement.
“Kanye, my boy, is a super, super, super free thinker and often what he means is misunderstood,” Diddy said in a new interview with Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club on Wednesday.
He continued, “I’m not making excuses, I’m just saying that if he did, he thinks so.
I understand that white lives matter, but it doesn’t.
‘[Black Lives Matter] was our slogan. That was not our slogan not to share with anyone else. We don’t have to condemn Kanye or cancel him, but at the same time you have to understand your actions.”
Diddy, 52, went on to note how African Americans are disproportionately incarcerated and living in poverty.
“There really is no time for lives that matter other than the tribe, you have to be unapologetically black and love your people first and love your tribe,” he said.
“If you heard something was up, you’d be the first to run to your house. You wouldn’t go to your neighbor’s house first.
‘We don’t have time for no internet ‘White Lives Matter’… we have to focus on ourselves. Let them out White Lives themselves.’
Diddy added: ‘It’s not the time for unnecessary noise. Not he or [Candace] Owens.’
A spokesperson for BLM fired back at Kanye .’s statement and labeled the T-shirt “harmful” to black families “fighting for justice.”
As the backlash continued to mount on Wednesday, Kanye shared a photo of one of his White Lives Matter shirts on Instagram with the defiant caption: “Here’s my final response when people ask me why I made a T-shirt that says white lives matter… THEY DO. ‘
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