This past Saturday, September 29, Kanye West appeared on the season 44 premiere of the hit sitcom Saturday Night Live (SNL) as the musical guest. During his final performance at the end of the show, West was seen sporting a “Make America Great Again” hat- a hat that has become all-too-familiar and easy to recognize.
West is a well-known rapper and hip-hop artist. Nowadays he is most known for being married to Kim Kardashian, with whom he has three children with.
Towards the end of his musical performance, he gave a pro-Trump speech and the segment, however, was cut from airing. You can check out clips of it that actor and comedian Chris Rock recorded on his Instagram story below.
In the video, both cheering and booing from the crowd can be heard. The cast is seen standing silently behind him. During his speech, West also briefly alluded to plans of running for political office in 2020. The Hollywood Reporter contacted the representatives for SNL and they declined to comment on the situation.
The rapper had recently posted a picture to Instagram of him wearing the “MAGA” hat with the caption, “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”.
During this unaired speech, West said he was bullied backstage before coming out in his MAGA hat. “You see they’re laughing at me, they screamed at me,” West said onstage. “They said, ‘Don’t go out there with that hat on.’ They bullied me backstage. They bullied me! And then they say I’m in a sunken place. You want to see the sunken place? Okay, I’m going to listen to y’all now, or I’m going to put my Superman cape on,” he said, replacing his MAGA cap. “This means you can’t tell me what to do.”
He also shared his opinion on the 13th Amendment, which in turn caused a large discussion on Twitter.
Chris Evans even tweeted at West saying, “There’s nothing more maddening than debating someone who doesn’t know history, doesn’t read books, and frames their myopia as virtue. The level of unapologetic conjecture I’ve encountered lately isn’t just frustrating, it’s retrogressive, unprecedented and absolutely terrifying.”
He was, in fact, the last minute replacement for Ariana Grande, who had to drop out for personal reasons. It was a different season premiere for the sketch series, for sure. Stay tuned next Saturday at 11:30 P.M. EST to see what episode two will bring. The host is going to be the amazingly funny and talented Awkwafina, who was recently seen in Ocean’s 8, and musical guest Travis Scott.