Rapper Kanye West declared himself to be “more influential” than Stanley Kubrick, Pablo Picasso, Paul the Apostle, and Pablo Escobar during a backstage meltdown on the set of Saturday Night Live last weekend.
In an audio recording obtained by Page Six, West can be heard allegedly berating the show’s production staff, and ranting about singer Taylor Swift.
“Look at that s—t, they took my f—king stage off a SNL without asking me. Now I’m bummed. That and Taylor Swift, fake ass,” West can be heard saying on the recording.
“We’re breaking the motherf—king Internet,” he added. “Are they f—–g crazy? Whoa by 50 percent [more influential than] Stanley Kubrick, Picasso, Apostle Paul, f—king Picasso and Escobar. By 50 percent more influential than any other human being.”
West also said on the recording, “Don’t f–k with me. Don’t f–k with me. Don’t f–k with me. By 50 percent dead or alive, by 50 percent for the next 1,000 years. Stanley Kubrick, ‘Ye.”
Listen to the rant below:
Page Six reports West became irate after he was informed he could not utilize a set he had planned to use for his performance, and proceeded to call the SNL production crew “white motherf—kers.”
“It was like he was having an emotional breakdown,” said the source. “The only thing that stopped him from actually leaving right then was that nobody had access to the freight elevator. If he’d walked out on the live show, it would have been a disaster. And the whole meltdown was just because of the floor.”
Another source told the site West threatened to cancel his performance, but was talked down by showrunner Lorne Michaels.
West’s bonkers week has thus far included feuding with Swift, taking to Twitter to request a $1 billion loan from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to clear personal debt and fund pet projects, and requesting so-called “white publications” to stop writing about “black music.”
His feud with Swift renewed after a track on his new album claimed he “made the bitch [Swift] famous” and discussed having sex with her.