Despite Kanye West’s past anti-Semitic statements, Lil Dicky believes Ye doesn’t dislike Jewish people.
Lil Dicky Thinks Kanye West Doesn’t Harbor Any Hate for Jewish People
While on a promo run for his latest album Penith, Lil Dicky stopped by to chat on the Flagrant podcast, which premiered the interview on Wednesday (Jan. 31) on YouTube. During the convo, Lil Dicky was asked about playing basketball with Kanye West. What many people may not know is that Kanye is a good b-ball player.
The “Freaky Friday” rapper revealed that he played against Kanye during his basketball run in 2017. Dicky revealed the Chicago rapper-producer was a “good shooter” and had some weird ball-handling moves on the court. Their year-long basketball encounters fostered a close friendship, which led to an invitation for Dicky to spend time in the studio with Kanye.
“Truly was, like, one of the nicest,” Dicky recalled about Kanye at the 2:02-mark in the video below. “And this is my hero. I told him to his face. I don’t know if I would have the self-belief if my formative years weren’t listening to this other person having this insane self-belief and that being the soundtrack to my life. I believe that. I owe a lot to his art.”
Dicky was then asked about his thoughts on Kanye’s past ant-Semitic controversies. Although the 35-year-old rhymer hasn’t hung out with Ye in a while, he believes that the Grammy Award-winning producer doesn’t harbor any hate for Jewish people.
“I obviously see all the things,” Dicky said referring to Kanye’s controversies. “I was, like, surprised. Because I don’t think in his heart Kanye dislikes Jewish people. I know he knows I’m Jewish. I know he likes me. You know what I mean?”
“In my heart, I feel like he probably said something and it was the wrong thing,” he continued. “I’m not denying that he’ll say the wrong thing often. I think he might have said the wrong thing, people got outraged. I think the thing that he can’t stand the most is when people tell him what he can or cannot say. He leaned into it. And that’s the reality. Now, I don’t think you should be leaning into it.”
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Kanye West Issues Apology to the Jewish Community
Last December, Kanye West returned to Instagram and posted a letter, written completely in Hebrew, apologizing to the Jewish community for his past anti-Semitic remarks.
“I sincerely apologize to the Jewish community for any unintended outburst caused by my words or actions,” his message read in part. “It was not my intention to hurt or disrespect, and I deeply regret any pain I may have caused. I am committed to starting with myself and learning from this experience to ensure greater sensitivity and understanding in the future.”
Despite the genuine nature of Kanye’s apology, there has been widespread speculation that his letter may have been created by artificial intelligence (A.I.).
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Watch Lil Dicky talk about his experience hanging out with Kanye West below.
