Charlie Kirk appears in a new documentary about Kanye West attending a strategy meeting with the controversial rapper.
Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA and a prominent voice in the conservative movement, was shot and killed earlier this month. President Trump was among those who attended a memorial for him Sunday.
He makes a brief cameo in In Whose Name?, a new film about West — now known as Ye — from 26-year-old filmmaker Nico Ballesteros which was released theatrically this week.
In the footage, which dates from April 2018, Kirk and fellow conservative commentator Candace Owens meet with Ye to discuss him image and political strategy.
“I have to show an example of a non-perfect black celeb that still wins,” Ye tells Owens and Kirk. “Because, if you’re a celeb and you’re Black and you’re perfect? You’re the housekeeper.”
“You’re a glorified slave,” Owens says in agreement, while Kirk concurs that Ye would look like “the help.”
Owens then tells Ye: “Culture will always be upstream from politics. Whoever can control culture can control politics. You wearing a MAGA hat? It broke the internet.”
Ballesteros, who followed Ye for six years mostly filming on an iPhone, has referred to Kirk’s presence while promoting his film, telling the New York Post: “It’s unfortunate, and may they rest in peace, but there are people in the film who are no longer here with us.”
The documentary’s first trailer, released last month, opened with Ye declaring in a voiceover: “I’m off my meds for five months now.”
“Your personality was not like this a few years ago,” Ye’s ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, responds, audibly distressed.
“It’s a calling by the universe,” the rapper’s voice continues over a montage of him in an open flatland and riding in a car next to his and Kardashian’s eldest daughter, North.
“Never tell me one day I’m gonna wake up with nothing,” he adds.
According to an official synopsis, In Whose Name? “reveals a side of West the world was never meant to see — raw, unfiltered, and suspended in the complexity of fame, faith, mental health, and power.”
“What began as a silent observation evolved into a profound journey of artistic and personal growth,” it adds. “Immersed in Ye’s world of extremes, [Ballesteros] bore witness to brilliance and breakdowns, triumphs and turmoil, but also observed the paranoia and intensity that increasingly shaped Ye’s world.”
In Whose Name? is in select theaters now.
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