Kanye West: 'I Know What It Feels To Have A Knee On My Neck Right Now'

Ye has attempted to apologise for the comments he made about George Floyd - "They hit him with the fentanyl if you look, the guys knew wasn't even on his neck like that," he said on the Drink Champs podcast about the death of George Floyd that sparked protests worldwide in 2020.

In a video reportedly filmed in Los Angeles, the Heartless rapper stopped to talk to the public. "I had experiences where I felt like I was being teamed up on. And I didn't realise that term would be antisemitic. So I had a mediation with Adidas today, and I think Adidas felt like cause everyone else was ganging up on me that they had the right to take my designs," Ye began.

He continued, "I feel like this is God humbling me right now. Cause there's two things that are happening. A lot of times when I would say, 'I am the richest Black man,' it would be a defence that I would use for the mental health conversation.

"What's happening right now is I'm being humbled. Another thing that's happening to me is by being burned to the flesh every single day; it's actually proving what I had to say. When I went to the mediation, what I wanna say is, Black people are like, okay, 'Lex Friedman got you to apologise, Piers Morgan got you to apologise to Jews, but you never apologised to us about the George Floyd comment that made us feel bad," he said.

Getting back to Floyd, he started with, "When the idea of Black Lives Matter came out, it made us come together as a people," and continued, "So I when said that and I questioned the death of George Floyd, it hurt my people. It hurt the Black people. So, I want to apologise [inaudible] because God has shown me by what Adidas is doing and by what the media is doing, I know how it feels to have a knee on my neck now. So thank you, God, for humbling me and letting me know how it really felt. Because how could the richest Black man ever be humbled other than to be made to not be a billionaire in front of everyone off one comment."

Ye is facing a $250 million lawsuit from George Floyd's family because of his comments and has been dropped by Adidas, Balenciaga, and Def Jam Recordings, among others.

A few weeks ago, Ye was locked out of Facebook and Instagram after spouting anti-semitic rhetoric.   

As reported by The Los Angeles Times, Ye's anti-semitic comments have had real-life consequences and recently drew a well-known hate group to a Los Angeles freeway; the group "gave Nazi salutes as they stood behind a large banner that read, 'Kanye is right about the Jews.'" 

Earlier this month, Ye was wearing a "White Lives Matter" long-sleeved shirt at his Yeezy Season 9 fashion show, where he later proclaimed himself "the leader". American conservative pundit Candace Owens wore a matching shirt while models wore it on the runway.