Kanye West Talks George Floyd Death Theories, Calls Drake ‘Greatest Rapper Ever’ & More on ‘Drink Champs’

The 45-year-old fashion mogul and rapper, who now goes by Ye, spoke with hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN about numerous topics during the nearly 45-minute conversation, including his theories about George Floyd’s death, how Jewish people control media and entertainment, Drake‘s success in hip-hop, and much more.

Ye, who recently attended the premiere of conservative commentator Candace Owens’ new film, The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM, said he believes Floyd’s death was caused by fentanyl and not by suffocation from a police officer’s knee.

“I watched the George Floyd documentary that Candace Owens put out. One of the things that his two roommates said was they want a tall guy like me, and the day that he died, he said a prayer for eight minutes,” the rapper said. “They hit him with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.”

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in May 2020 after he knelt on Floyd’s neck, which ultimately resulted in the man’s death.

Ye also compared Floyd to late fashion designer Virgil Abloh. “This white company Louis Vuitton is now making statues of him as a martyr, and we don’t know why exactly [he died], they said it was cancer,” he said.

The Drink Champs interview follows a whirlwind of controversy that Ye has faced in recent weeks, including his removal from Twitter and Instagram for a string of anti-Semitic posts, along with backlash from his “White Lives Matter” shirt at Paris Fashion Week.

Elsewhere in the lengthy chat, Ye argued that he’s not anti-Semitic because he’s also a Jew as the “blood of Christ.” He also went off on Jewish people controlling the media and entertainment, and blamed “Jewish Zionists” for sensational articles about his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her former boyfriend Pete Davidson.

“Jewish people have owned the Black voice,” Ye said. “Either it’s through us wearing the Ralph Lauren shirt, or it’s all of us being signed to a record label, or having a Jewish manager, or being signed to a Jewish basketball team, or doing a movie on a Jewish platform like Disney. I respect what the Jewish people have done, and how they brought their people together.”

The rapper also claimed that four concerts he had scheduled at Los Angeles’ So-Fi Stadium were canceled by stadium owners after his “Death Con 3” tweet.

“They been f—ing with me for too long,” Ye said. “They put the crazy narrative out there.” He added, “Paparazzi taking a photo of you, you ain’t getting no money off of it. You’re used to getting screwed by the Jewish media.”

Ye also touched on Drake’s successful career in hip-hop, calling the Canadian MC “the greatest rapper ever. “I don’t apologize about it,” said the rapper, who was previously beefing Drizzy.