Kanye West appeared on "TMZ Live" Monday where he clarified his recent remark calling to “abolish” the 13th Amendment from the U.S. Constitution. (Getty Images, File)
Kanye West is clarifying his earlier remark calling to “abolish” the 13th Amendment from the U.S. Constitution.
In an appearance on “TMZ Live” Monday, the “Ye” rapper sat down with host Harvey Levin and explained that he “misspoke” in his recent tweet about the 13th Amendment, which largely banned "slavery and involuntary servitude."
“Abolish was the wrong language. I misspoke by saying abolish. Amend is the right language,” West said, noting that “there’s power in words.”
“What’s beautiful about our Constitution is we can amend it,” he adds.
West, 41, went on to share a message he received from a friend, stating that his pal, who is from the star’s hometown of Chicago, “puts a lot of energy into understanding historical facts.”
“In 1865, the 13th Amendment stated that no man is destined to slavery or involuntary servitude unless convicted of a crime,” West read off his phone.
He continued: “This translates to, in order to make a freed man a slave, all you have to do is convict them of a crime.”
Making sure he understood what the artist was saying, Levin asked West: “They carve out prison for involuntary servitude and you can use prison as a pretext to bring involuntary servitude back. Is that what you’re saying?”
“Well it has,” West said, adding: “There’s people getting paid 8 cents a week working for companies that are privately owned, and a lot of them are first-time offenders, a lot of them are non-violent crimes.”
West’s recent tweet about the 13th Amendment didn’t sit well with many fans and celebrities.
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“This represents good and America becoming whole again. We will no longer outsource to other countries. We build factories here in America and create jobs. We will provide jobs for all who are free from prisons as we abolish the 13th amendment. Message sent with love,” he wrote on Twitter Sunday.
In a follow-up post, West tried to explain his initial post by saying the 13th Amendment was “slavery in disguise... meaning it never ended. We are the solution that heals.”
He eventually tweeted that he thought it should be amended, rather than abolished. “We apply everyone’s opinions to our platform,” he wrote.
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