Kanye West Shares George W. Bush's Pain

After George W. Bush denounced Kanye West’s comments branding him a racist, the rapper has revealed that he had no idea how his statement would have affected the former President. During a visit to Z100’s “Elvis Duran and The Morning Show” today, ‘Ye spoke on how he was “emotionally convicted” when he said that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

Bush addressed Kanye’s infamous comments, calling them one of the lowest points of his career. “Five years later I can barely write those words without feeling disgust,” he told NBC’s Matt Lauer. “I faced a lot of criticism as President. I didn’t like hearing people claim that I lied about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction or cut taxes to benefit the rich. But the suggestion that I was racist because of the response to Katrina represented an all time low.”

Kanye sympathized with the former Commander-in-Chief, having been vilified himself over the Taylor Swift incident. “I was emotionally convicted at that moment of Katrina and I expressed what I felt,” said Yeezy. “But also that in history, the way that people just write people off completely as a bad guy or completely as a good guy. There’s no dynamics to the actual human being.”

Mr. West realized that his harsh words had an impact on Bush, not just as an attack on a political figure but also as a human being. “What hurts me about the Bush thing now is […] the fact that I could be responsible for putting someone else, anyone, whether they were considered to be an enemy or not, through the exact same pain that I went through,” he explained. “And that’s when I started to really feel the humanity of that situation.”

He also reflected on how his statement was really meant to echo the concerns of Americans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. “A lot of people just wanted someone to say something about this idea, because the President is supposed to represent the emotions of the country at that time,” he stated, also noting that Bush has done a lot for Africa and even pardoned Fugees affiliate John Forté.

“I know it’s unpopular to ever come to the defense of a declared enemy, especially me attempting to clear my name. But the thing is, I just have to deal with the reality, the clear-cut reality, because everyone wants to drag these things into folders: bad, good, hip-hop, pop—whatever it is,” reflected ‘Ye. “And sometimes, things just aren’t that clearly in the folder like that.”