Los Angeles, Mar 21 (UNI): Trevor Noah has issued a statement on Kanye West, who put out a racist post about the Daily Show and Grammys host, leading to his ban from performing at the ceremony.
Noah wanted to clarify his stand on West following the controversy. After the news of the rapper’s Grammys performance ban amid “concerning” online behaviour and a 24-hour suspension from Instagram for directing a racial slur at the standup comedian, who is hosting the upcoming music award ceremony for a second time, Noah issued a statement on Twitter on Sunday.
“I said counsel Kanye,” Noah wrote, “not cancel Kanye.”
The tweet from the host, who has spoken out against “cancel culture” before and has himself faced criticism over some past jokes, comes a day after Kanye’s representative confirmed to E! News a March 18 report from The Blast, which quoted sources close to Ye as saying that the Donda rapper’s team was told over the phone on that evening that he was pulled from the lineup of performers for the Grammys due to his “concerning online behaviour”.
E! News said it was awaiting a response from the Recording Academy, the group behind the ceremony, about the cancellation and about Noah’s tweet, and also Ye’s reaction. A source close to Noah reiterated to E! News that the host himself “never asked the Grammys to ban Kanye from performing” at the award show, in which the rapper is nominated for five honours.
“He was not offended by Kanye’s Instagram post and Trevor responded on Instagram,” the source added. “The notion that Trevor or his team asked the Grammys to ban Kanye is ridiculous.”
Last week, Kanye was suspended from Instagram for 24 hours after posting a racial slur directed at Noah, with parent company Meta saying Ye violated the group’s policies on hate speech, bullying and harassment. In recent weeks, the rap artist has mostly used Instagram to express grievances with ex Kim Kardashian and her boyfriend Pete Davidson, whose likeness is subjected to violence in Ye’s recently released “Eazy” music video. Following a backlash about the footage, Kanye wrote, “Art is therapy” and “is not a proxy for any ill or harm.”
Ye had shared his offensive post about Noah a day after the host expressed concern about the rapper in a serious monologue on The Daily Show, during which he cited what he called the rapper’s “belligerent” behaviour and treatment of Kim and Pete, E!Now said.
