Ye surprised attendees at a screening of the Netflix docuseries jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy on Friday (Feb. 11).
According to Variety, the superproducer arrived at Citizen News in Hollywood about 15 minutes after the preview began, and was seated by staff in the front corner of the venue. The outlet states Usher, Roddy Rich, Taraji P. Henson, Offset, and other celebrities were in attendance.
After the screening concluded, Ye reportedly hugged the documentary’s directors Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah.
After Chike handed him the mic., Ye spoke to the crowd about Black Future Month and sticking together.
“When you have people next to you that believe in you and a community that sticks together, that’s the way that we can protect each other,” Ye said. “Hollywood a lot of times — like I got my man DaBaby right here — people try to cancel us and we all run away from each other and scatter or we be not talking to each other, not communicating. And that’s why on Black Future Month we stood up and said, ‘We got stand next to each other and we ain’t gonna let each other go when someone brings up one mistake that someone did.’”
The billionaire entertainer, who’s been entangled in a public feud with his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, then spoke about Kobe Bryant.
“When Kobe died people, there’s people that brought up his mistake, but I always felt that that was a setup, that was something to diminish the man because he never learned how to be a slave,” Ye said. “This man spoke Italian. This man could play ball. This man spoke multiple languages. He never learned a certain kind of mentality.”
“When y’all see me doing certain things that y’all wouldn’t expect us to do, and y’all want me to step back and be a house nigga, that’s not my position,” Ye continued. “My position is to make what y’all might think are mistakes in public, so I can show you that that ain’t no red line, that ain’t no real wall. That’s just a smokescreen, and it’s for us to take this. We on labels we don’t own, play for basketball teams we don’t own. The time is now. I got offered $100 million by Larry Jackson to put Donda on Apple, but I ain’t never got a meeting with Tim Cook. So it ain’t about the money, it’s about our power and our respect collectively. So, I be saying stuff that people try to remind me in Black History Month that people got killed for. But this is Black Future Month…”
West’s appearance at the event seems to signal he has smoothed things over with directors Codie and Chike. Last month, Ye took to Instagram to demand Netflix give him final edit and approval.
“I’m going to say this kindly for the last time. I must get final edit and approval on this doc before it releases on Netflix. Open the edit room immediately, so I can be in charge of my own image. Thank you in advance,” Ye wrote.
Netflix will drop the highly-anticipated documentary in three parts beginning Wednesday, Feb. 16.
Check out Ye’s speech below: