Paul McCartney has defended Kanye West’s repeated use of the N-word and has said it is justifiable in the context in which he uses it.
The 73-year-old musician endearingly referred to West as a “monster” while discussing his recent collaboration with the rapper at a Mastertapes session at the BBC’s Maida Vale studios.
“I get this track back, a thing called All Day. He’s taken my melody and he’s made it seriously urban, which is funny because the lyrics use the N-word – a lot! ‘How long have you been at the mall?’ ‘All day, -word!’,” said McCartney, according to a report in the Radio Times.
“It’s a great record,” he continued to tell the audience. “Sonically it’s brilliant, but quite a few people said, ‘You can’t be connected with this, there’s, like, 40 N-words!”
“People like Oprah, who’s a little conservative about that stuff, said, ‘You shouldn’t do it, even black people shouldn’t use that word'.
“I said, ‘Yeah, but it’s Kanye! And he’s talking about an urban generation that uses that word in a completely different way.’ It’s the context. So I was actually pleased with it.”
West performed All Day at the Brit Awards this year but the performance was heavily censored by ITV. The decision to censor the song which reportedly uses the N-word 39 times divided viewers and Ofcom received 151 complaints.
McCartney also referred to West as an eccentric and commended his artistic capabilities. “I love Kanye, people say he’s eccentric which you would have to agree with but he is a monster… he is a crazy guy who comes up with great stuff” he said.
