N.O.R.E. was apologetic this morning, a day after his Kanye West Drink Champs interview made waves across the internet. The Kanye interview was recorded Friday and was released late Saturday evening, but it was so controversial that the interview was initially pulled, before it was reuploaded Sunday afternoon. N.O.R.E. apologized for the Kanye West interview several times Monday morning following backlash the last 24 hours.
During the interview Kanye West continued his recent behavior of making outlandish comments, finding ways to offend the Black community that has supported him throughout his career; and the Jewish community among others. His George Floyd comments almost don’t even deserve the attention, but they are so stinging that the Floyd family and many others have let both West and the Drink Teams have it.
N.O.R.E. apologized for the Kanye West interview early this morning, making appearances on The Breakfast Club and on The Paul Rosenberg Show on Hot 97, among others. His message was pretty much identical on both shows. Here’s the main points he made:
First, he usually doesn’t watch the episodes after he records them so he didn’t realize just how bad it was.
Second, Kanye came in making threats to his producers, which threw him off his game at the beginning of the interview. That seemed to be half his explanation for not checking Kanye’s George Floyd comments in the first 8 minutes of the interview.
The second half of his explanation for not checking Kanye early in the interview is that he was trying to make it a long, successful interview and he wanted to make sure he didn’t check him too early and lose him in a walk out, similar to the Birdman Breakfast Club interview.
As for having Kanye do the interview at all, N.O.R.E. explained that he knows what its like to be blackballed in this industry, so as a believer in free speech he felt like he could provide Kanye with an outlet. He also felt like he could control the conversation, but he acknowledged that he failed.
Here’s a clip of N.O.R.E. apologizing for the Kanye West interview on the Paul Rosenberg show on Hot 97.
Other points that N.O.R.E. made, and maybe the most important point is that he is not a journalist! Nothing against N.O.R.E., but this is what happens when you have rappers interviewing their friends in the industry. As N.O.R.E. explains, the point of his show is to come on, get drunk and open up, with the goal being that you get so drunk that you get a bit messy and you reveal more. While that makes for solid entertainment, that is not journalism. Journalists understand they have a responsibility and they understand that some moments are too big to stick to your usual formula, even if your formula was one like this.
The decision to not edit this episode and to air it unedited the next day, without rewatching it, despite the fact that N.O.R.E. acknowledges that he was drunk by the end of the taping, is also just irresponsible and adds to the need for backlash here.
We also can’t forget that while N.O.R.E. is apologizing today, he spend all day yesterday on social media bragging about the views he was getting and about the fact that he was shutting down the interview with this interview.
N.O.R.E. also did add that the interview is 3 hours and that he does check Kanye on the George Floyd comments and the antisemitic comments but they do come much later in the interview and because he is drunk and took the “homie” approach with Kanye instead of a more serious stand, it may not be taken seriously.
Is the N.O.R.E. apology enough for you??
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