NEW YORK, Feb. 18 (UPI) — Leaked audio revealed Kanye West having a meltdown before he took the stage on “Saturday Night Live.”
Released by Page Six, the recorded tirade features the outspoken rapper upset over changes made to the stage and a mention of pop star Taylor Swift.
“Look at that [expletive], they took my [expletive] off a ‘SNL’ without asking me,” West is heard saying. “Now I’m bummed. That and Taylor Swift fake [expletive].”
According to Page Six, West is yelling at “SNL” production staff, however, a source close to the 38-year-old explained to Rolling Stone that “This audio was secretly recorded while he was venting his frustration in a private moment with his team. He found out his stage design was changed and taken apart under the direction of the show’s lighting director without anyone’s approval.”
As the profanity laden rant continues on, West threatens to walk off the show before he begins declaring himself more influential then Stanley Kubrick, Pablo Picasso and Paul the Apostle. “Whoa by 50 percent [I am more influential than] Stanley Kubrick, Picasso, Apostle Paul, [expletive] Picasso and Escobar. By 50 percent more influential than any other human being,” he is heard saying. “By 50 percent dead or alive, by 50 percent for the next 1,000 years. Stanley Kubrick, ‘Ye.”
West did end up performing on the sketch-comedy series with the source noting to Rolling Stone that afterwards the rapper stayed behind to “chat with the staff and the cast, and thanked the producers on his way out the door.”
Following the performance and before the audio was released, West talked about being more humble on Twitter Wednesday in response to an earlier series of tweets in which he mentioned retaking the “throne of rap,” while asking Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to invest in “Kanye West ideas.”
“Man, I was thinking about when I commented on the idea of “taking the rap throne” …,” West posted. “that statement has’t been sitting well with me… That’s a dated mentality … I’m not on that …”
“A wise man should be humble enough to admit when he’s wrong and change his mind based on new information…,” he continued. “My number one enemy has been my ego… there is only one throne and that’s God’s.”
February has been a busy month for West who recently released his seventh studio album “The Life of Pablo,” and made headlines for taking credit for Swift’s success on his new song “Famous.”
Swift seemingly responded to the lyric while accepting the award for Album of the Year at the Grammy’s Monday proclaiming onstage “As the first woman to win album of the year at the Grammys twice, I want to say to all the young women out there: there are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.”
