Lil Dicky does not feel Kanye West was antisemitic on the several occasions that he spoke out against Jewish people.
The Jewish rapper/actor appeared on the current edition of Flagrant, which aired on Wednesday (January 31), to discuss the new Dave soundtrack, Penith. During the lengthy talk, Dicky shared his thoughts on Ye, whom he says simply doubles down on things because he is a contrarian, not because he is maliciоus.
“All I can tell you is my experience with Kanye West, which was in 2017 I ended up getting involved in his – he had a basketball run,” he said. “I actually met him on the basketball floor. By the way, this was my first time meeting Kanye – full court three-on-three, with me guarding him. So that was my first time meeting him. Very intriguing game. “He can hoop a little.”
The couple ended up playing twice a week for about a year, and their friendship grew as Ye would preview new music for him and show him the outfits he was designing.
“He was nothing but nice to me the entire time,” he said. “Truly was one of the loveliest. And this is my hero. […] His art has greatly influenced my life. My mentality was certainly influenced by early Kanye.”
“I obviously see all the things and I was surprised because I don’t think in his heart that Kanye dislikes Jewish people,” he went on to sаy. “I’m sure he knows I’m Jewish, and I know he likes me. In my heart, I believe he said something that was incorrect.
“I’m not denying that he sаys the wrong thing frequently. I believe he said something wrong, and people were furious. I believe the thing he dislikes the most is when people tell him what he can and cannot sаy. And he leaned into it.
He went on to sаy, “That is the fact. Now, I don’t believe you should be leaning into it. I’m not saying what he did is correct. I believe that there should be sensitivity toward Jewish people. However, this is purely my theory. I’m not particularly close to the situation. I played basketball with him for a year. But I’ll tell you, he was the sweetest man. And I saw him connect with a lot of different people while being quite courteous.”