Kanye West lashed out at Radiohead and rallied behind Chris Brown at the taping of a recent TV special, according to reports. Not that anyone will see it.
Both quotes were excised from Kanye West's profile on VH1 Storytellers, with producers blaming time constraints. They cut the three-hour taping into a 90-minute special – still a full half-hour longer than regular episodes. But despite the temporal leniency, some of West's juiciest comments didn't make the cut.
"Can't we give Chris [Brown] a break?" the rapper allegedly said. "I know I make mistakes in life."
The taping took place on 13 February, before many details of Brown's alleged assault of his girlfriend, Rihanna, had been released.
VH1 encourages artists "to just keep talking", according to executive producer Bill Flanagan. Producers then promise to "eliminate any 'gotcha' moments". But Kanye's comments weren't cut due to content, Flanagan insisted. The problem was time. "A lot of the stories that Kanye told went long ... I tried to get to the essence of his comments."
Elsewhere on the cutting-room floor, Kanye allegedly complained that he had been snubbed by Radiohead's Thom Yorke at this year's Grammy awards. "So when he performed at the Grammys, I sat the fuck down," he explained.
In comments that did make it to air, Kanye praised a litany of notorious celebs. "Michael Jackson, amazing," he said. "Michael Phelps, amazing ... OJ Simpson, amazing. Is he not? What he did, when he did, what he did. Was he not amazing though?"
Thank goodness all of these comments, controversial and not so controversial, expurgated and unexpurgated, were leaked to the press.
