On Tuesday, May 1, Kanye West graced the TMZ newsroom with his presence to rant, rave, and (some would say) misbehave.

He was there, in part, to discuss the notion of “free thought” with conservative commentator Candace Owens, and things soon turned to West’s stance on slavery – “a choice” made by African Americans, as West sees it.

Naturally, his on-air assessment caused an outrage, not only from many of the TMZ staffers in the room who witnessed West’s jaw dropping declaration, but from TMZ viewers who felt West’s comments were – even for him – off-the-radar in terms of “are you serious?”

West’s quote, “”When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years?! That sounds like a choice,” hit a nerve immediately, most notably for TMZ’s Van Lathan. He got into it with West, calling out his polarizing position, his out-of-touch mentality, and other grievances against the riled-up rapper. Watch the video below if you have not seen the TMZ drama yet.

Some think West was particularly over-the-top yesterday because he recently got off his meds. But West engaging and enraging is nothing new. But even he took a step back after the interview with TMZ to further explain what he meant by “a choice” by tweeting, “The reason why I brought up the 400 years point is because we can’t be mentally imprisoned for another 400 years. We need free thought now. Even the statement was an example of free thought … It was just an idea.”

While the slavery discussion was arguably the most controversial aspect of his morning with TMZ, learning that West had liposuction in ’16 and got hooked on opioids thereafter was quite the revelation.

Stay tuned for more West whirlwind as he is sure to keep his “free thought” flowing. Fans and foes are always ready to weigh in.

Melissa A. Kay is a New York-based writer, editor, and content strategist. Follow her work on PopDust as well as sites including TopDust, PayPath, Chase Bank, P&G, Understood.org, The Richest, GearBrain, The Journiest, Bella, TrueSelf, AMC Daycare, and more.

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