Michael Che confronted Kanye West on "Saturday Night Live" for "selling out" the cast in 2018, as revealed in footage from the new documentary "In Whose Name?". After the "Heartless" rapper took the stage on the NBC variety show and delivered a lengthy speech about his support for President Donald Trump, among other topics, Che—who co-anchors "Weekend Update" with Colin Jost—engaged in a tense exchange with West backstage at SNL.
In his impassioned rant, West, now 48, declared, "You can't be controlled by monolithic thoughts." He continued, "You can't always have, every time you have a Black subject matter like [Bill] Cosby, that you have to have a Black comedian talking about him," gesturing towards Che and asking, "You know what I mean?"
West then alleged that he had been "bullied" backstage for wearing his "Make America Great Again" hat, claiming that he was told, "'Don't go out there with that hat on.'" He exclaimed, "They bullied me backstage. They bullied me, and then they say I'm in a sunken place. You wanna see the sunken place? I’mma listen to y’all now. I’m gonna put my Superman cape on."
The documentary then cut to Che, now 42, approaching West backstage after the show and expressing his frustration. "You good with me? For real? That was f***ed up," he told the 24-time Grammy winner. Che questioned why West had singled him out when he hadn't even had the chance to respond.
West denied that he was referring to Che and claimed that his remark about the "Black comedian" making the Cosby joke was actually directed at Leslie Jones's return. "I’m the Black comedian that made a joke about Cosby," Che retorted. "That’s f***ed up. Why’d you do that to me?"
West responded by telling Che he "loved him." "I love you, too. I’m a fan. Why would you do that to me?" Che asked. West replied, "I wasn’t doing it to you." Che persisted, "I work here. I work here. Like, come on man. We treat everyone that comes in like family and you gonna sell us out. Like, that’s f***ed up man. Like we look up to you, we love you. What you got against us?"
West then admitted that he had "some things against SNL in general." While Che acknowledged that was "cool," he argued that "airing it out" without giving them a chance to "reply" was "foul."
Toward the end of the conversation, the documentary showed a third party attempting to de-escalate the situation, telling Che to "reconvene in a second" as someone off-camera asked if the following moment could not be recorded.
During his September 2018 appearance on SNL, the "Wouldn’t Leave" rapper delivered a third musical performance followed by a lengthy speech about his admiration for President Trump, now 79. He began by singing, "I wanna cry right now. Black man in America, you’re supposed to keep what you feel inside right now. And the liberals bully you and tell you what you can and cannot wear, where you and they can’t not stare. And they look at me and say, ‘It’s not fair. How the hell did you get here?’ Well…"
Sporting a MAGA hat, he then delivered an unexpected speech in front of SNL performers like Jost and host Adam Driver, as some in the crowd booed. "Actually, Blacks weren’t always Democrats," West said at the time. "It’s like a plan they did to take the fathers out the homes and promote welfare. Does anybody know about that? That’s the Democratic plan."
"In Whose Name," which is now in limited release, features over 3,000 hours of personal footage that director Nico Ballesteros filmed over six years with West's permission, offering a glimpse into the rapper's mental state and beliefs.
