It's not easy keeping up with Kanye West and his feuds, his views or his relationship status.
On Thursday, Nov. 4, in a rare appearance on Revolt TV's Drink Champs podcast, the 44-year-old rap artist and fashion designer, also known by his new legal name, Ye, made some controversial comments about past feuds with Drake and Taylor Swift, his ongoing divorce from Kim Kardashian, his opinions of artists such as Common, DaBaby and Marilyn Manson, cancel culture, how he is perceived as a celebrity, and even his COVID-19 vaccination status.
Here are some of the bombshells Ye dropped on the podcast:
On Drake:
"Man, I love Drake," he said. "I love all artists, period, but not even to mention, I love Drake. I love all this. Let's have Drake just have his spot of what he meant in my life, specifically, and what he's meant to rap, you know, over the past decade, specifically. This is a very, I would say the most, if I wasn't me, most of the time, this is a very important artist that actually added something to the algorithm."
Ye continued, "As we become more civilized and more sophisticated, the style of rap that he was doing was more sophisticated than the style of rap that I grew up on...he created this thing that actually has good melodies in it, you know, good music in it that became massively accessible. So it's sort of like the iPhone."
Kanye famously ranted on social media about Drake several times in 2018, including just after fans speculated that Kim was "Kiki" in the latter artist's hit song "In My Feelings." She denied the rumors.
The feud continued in 2021, when Kanye appeared to share Drake's Toronto address online. Drizzy later released his new album, Certified Lover Boy, and it contained a track that many fans believe called out Ye over the address incident.
"I love Drake," Kanye continued on Drink Champs. "I was just telling you things that he was doing in a professional game of rap that was throwing me off. And then, OK, I bit his ear. and that's what happened, that was Mike Tyson."
On That Moment With Taylor Swift...
Kanye and Taylor's feud began in 2009 when he famously interrupted her acceptance speech at the MTV VMAs, grabbing her mic and saying Beyoncé deserved to win the Best Female Video award.
"I was actually talked in to going to the awards show," Kanye recalled on Drink Champs. "At that time, it was [my manager] Don C.'s job to talk me into stuff. They find new people whose job would be to talk me into doing something that I don't want to do—influencers, people around you. So that night, I said, 'Man, I'm not going to this awards show. I'm not sitting through this no more.' And the very first award, they sit me in the front row."
He continued, "You got 'Single Ladies' video...this is one of the best videos in history. So it's not that it's just for her when the artist does something that's that compelling and incredible. We got to respect it."
Following the shocking on-air interruption, Ye and Taylor later made up, but the feud was reignited in 2016 when he released his track "Famous," which contained the lyrics, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous." The two had talked about the song over the phone before it was released, but do not agree publicly about what they specifically said to each other.
Despite their feud, Kanye expressed support for Taylor in 2020 after she lost control of the master recordings of her first six albums when she left the Big Machine record label. The company's new owner, music executive Scooter Braun, later sold the recordings to a private equity company. Over the past two years, she has worked to re-record her past songs in a bid to regain control of her music.
"I'M GOING TO PERSONALLY SEE TO IT THAT TAYLOR SWIFT GETS HER MASTERS BACK. SCOOTER IS A CLOSE FAMILY FRIEND," Kanye tweeted in September 2020. "WE'RE GOING TO MOVE THE ENTIRE MUSIC INDUSTRY INTO THE 21ST CENTURY."
"Rapper" vs. "Artist":
"Like, I feel this year just should nobody just even put the album in the category of album of the year so I can finally have album a year, because you don't want to be the person that beat Donda for album of the year," Kanye said. "You gotta understand, I made Watch the Throne...and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy the same year and neither of them got nominated for album of the year. I'ma just tell y'all this: When white people say the word 'rapper,' that is saying, 'n-----.' When you say it to me, you saying you getting away with saying 'n-----.'"
He continued, "Last night on the game, they had my face on the chyron and on the screen it said, 'hip-hop artist.' I was like, you know, I got a PhD from the Art Institution of Chicago from the most prestigious art school in the world. Could I at least be called an artist?"
In 2015, Kanye was awarded an honorary degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for his "transformative, genre-defying work."
On His Split From Kim Kardashian:
Kim filed for divorce from Kanye, father of their four children, in February. During the podcast, Kanye mentioned "my wife," adding, "because she's still my wife—ain't no paperwork."
Since Kim filed for divorce, she and Kanye have reunited a few times publicly—she and the kids joined him at his Donda album release parties, with her even appearing onstage in a wedding gown, and he helped her prepare for the SNL hosting debut earlier this month and attended part of the live taping.
"SNL making my wife say 'I divorced him' because they just wanted to get that bar off," Kanye said on the podcast. "And I ain't never even seen the papers, we're not even divorced."
Despite his comments Kanye did file a response to Kim's divorce filing, seeking joint custody of their children.
On the podcast, he continued, "That ain't no joke to me. My kids want their parents to stay together. I want us to be together."
On Marilyn Manson, DaBaby and Cancel Culture:
In recent months, shock rocker Manson has appeared onstage at one of Kanye's Donda release parties and recently, at his Halloween Sunday Service. Earlier this year, Los Angeles police opened an investigation of allegations of domestic violence by Manson, who has maintained that his intimate relationships were consensual.
Rapper DaBaby also drew controversy this year homophobic remarks, for which he later apologized, but not before getting dis-invited from performing at Lollapalooza.
"When I sit next to Marilyn Manson and DaBaby right after both of them got canceled for five songs, it's like, they can't cancel us all," Kanye said on the podcast.
Speaking about cancel culture in general, Kanye said, "I love it. I'm above it."
On Common and John Legend:
"The only thing I don't like about Common is that he works for the Democrats, to be saying all kinds of like, whatever they tell him to do," Kanye said. "This is a light-skinned n----- be doing...John Legend."
In 2018, Ye expressed support for and even met with then-President Donald Trump. Legend, a Democratic political activist, texted the fellow musical artist his concerns. The two later hung out and danced at Legend and wife Chrissy Teigen's baby shower for their second child. "We got love," Kanye tweeted, alongside a selfie of him and Legend. "Agree to disagree."
On Signing Big Sean to His Record Label:
In 2007, the rapper signed with Kanye's G.O.O.D. Music label, which is owned by Universal Music Group. Last week, Big Sean announced on Twitter that after 14 years, he has stepped away from the company, writing, "That's a forever brotherhood, but business wise, I had to start getting a bigger cut! I worked my way out that deal."
"Lemme tell you that when I die, on my tombstone, I'm gonna say I deserve to be here because I signed Big Sean," Kanye said on Drink Champs. "The worst thing I've ever done was sign Big Sean. I know this man's mama, bro. I've changed this man's family and both John Legend and Big Sean, when I ran for office [in 2020], got used quick by the Democrats to come at a boy that actually changed their life and that's some sellout s--t and I don't rock with neither of them and I need my apologies."
Big Sean responded on Twitter, posting photos of him and Kanye talking with another friend and writing, "Was just wit this man, he ain't say none of that!!! And this was after the interview! I'm dying laughing at you @kanyewest"
"The dems?" Big Sean tweeted. "No I didn't. I didn't get used by anybody or endorse anyone publicly at all. Cause I'm not political. That's what's hilarious, none of it's true n he doesn't even know what he talking about. I'm rollin"
Legend's rep had no immediate comment when reached by E! News.
On His COVID-19 Vaccination Status:
"I only got one of the shots," Kanye said on the podcast. "I'm half-cinated."