Katt Williams on Kanye West: ‘I Don’t Understand What It Is We Want From Him’
Katt Williams says he doesn’t “understand what it is we want” from the artist formerly known as Kanye West.
The comments were included in Shannon Sharpe‘s extensive interview with the unparalleled comedian, who has a stacked tour schedule through at least May of this year. In the third hour of the discussion, Williams was asked to share his thoughts on Ye “from a distance,” prompting him to point out the general public’s repeatedly proven awfulness.
“I suspect that we’re pretty awful people if we say that somebody got a mental illness and then we watch what they do,” Williams said. “If you say somebody got special needs, then why would you be watching them and holding them accountable like everybody else? Wouldn’t you grade them on a curve? Wouldn’t you go, ‘Whew, this guy?’ Because, I mean, what are we reacting to? What are we reacting to? You are the one that put him in a position where he thought he was God and could call himself Yeezus. You’re the one that told the guy that writes musical lyrics that he was a genius. What do you expect? The guy married a whore.”
Elaborating on the latter point, Williams spoke further on Kim Kardashian before bringing the conversation back to Ye, specifically.
“I didn’t mean it like that. I mean he married her because she was one, not that he didn’t know,” he added. “He understood that he wanted that. He courted that. That’s what he wanted to be base his family on.”
Sharpe then interjected to argue that Kardashian has a “good heart,” at which point Williams got in a few more remarks, including a mention of Pete Davidson.
“If what I’m saying is not correct, then how does she end up with Pete Davidson?” Williams said. “And what if you weren’t even good enough for Pete and he leaves you. What does that mean the product was?”
Shifting back to Ye, Williams used a basketball and hockey analogy to drive home his point.
“I don’t support or villainize Kanye because I don’t understand what it is we want from him,” Williams said of Ye, who was recently accused of using AI to craft his apology over a string of anti-Semitic controversies. “I don’t know why we look at a basketball player and say, ‘He didn’t score no hockey goals this whole season.’ He don’t play hockey!”
According to Williams, Ye was “the weird guy in the beginning,” meaning people shouldn’t be surprised by what’s happened in the years since he first became a household name.
“This dude started a church and kept cussing,” he said. “Nobody in Black church said nothing. You would have thought all the pastors would have came [and said], ‘You can’t be no gospel artist! You just said, fuck that bitch!’ Nobody said nothing. Because T.D. Jakes over there with P. Diddy.”
See Williams’ full interview below.