N.O.R.E. Apologizes For Interviewing Kanye West And Says He Was Wrong For Thinking He "Could Control The Interview"

Kanye West has always been a controversial figure, but he became one of the most hated rappers after he came forward as a Donald Trump supporter a few years ago. When he attended the premiere of The Greatest Lie Ever Sold, a Daily Wire documentary by Candace Owens, the spotlight was on him yet again and he was accused of being anti-black, as the film was about the fraudulent rise of Black Lives Matter and the sensational reporting on George Floyd's death in 2020. On Drink Champs, Kanye made several comments that upset many people, especially about Floyd and the amount of fentanyl that was in his system at the time of his death.

N.O.R.E. Apologizes for Interviewing Kanye West and Says He Was Wrong for Thinking He "Could Control the Interview"

The interview Kanye did with N.O.R.E on Drink Champs was taken down from YouTube without any explanation, and after the backlash from Kanye's comments, rapper N.O.R.E came forward to apologize and say that he regrets even speaking with Kanye in the first place. In an interview with Hot97's Peter Rosenberg, he said he had a relationship with Kanye and he thought this would lay the foundation for a good conversation.

"When he was going through a lot of the things he was going through, he would call me and he would actually listen to me and take my advice," he said. "So I felt I could control the situation. I felt that I could control the interview, and learned early on that I didn’t.”

N.O.R.E. called himself a journalist and continued to say that he thought he did a good job as a journalist, but maybe not as a human being and a black man. “As a journalist, you’re really not supposed to have an opinion…you’re supposed to let people talk. And my biggest critique on Drink Champs is ‘N.O.R.E., you always cut people off!’ And this is the one time I didn’t cut the people, didn’t cut ’em off, and everyone’s mad," he said.

During another call to The Breakfast Club, he apologized to "the George Floyd family" and "anybody that was hurt by Kanye West's comments."

“I was locked down, I’m a supporter of the George Floyd movement,” he said. “I saw that video too. I seen that cop’s knee on his neck. I seen [Floyd] calling for whoever. I’m embarrassed of myself.”

“I just want to be honest, I support freedom of speech,” N.O.R.E said. “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 West] on my show were so hurtful.”

Floyd's family is now suing Kanye for $250 million over his comments about Floyd, despite the fact that he donated $2 million to the family two years ago in the wake of Floyd's death.