Taking the stage at the 2019 Fast Company Innovation Festival, the 'Famous' rapper also says that he considers to legally change his name to Christian Genius Billionaire Kanye West for a year.
- Nov 8, 2019
AceShowbiz - There was a rather uncomfortable moment when Kanye West joined a panel at the 2019 Fast Company Innovation Festival on Thursday, November 7. The fashion and hip-hop mogul called out the audience at the New York event for laughing at him over a comment he made during the discussion.
Sitting down with shoe designer Steven Smith and writer Mark Wilson, Kanye was talking about how his fashion brand Yeezy brought jobs to the United States, something that, according to him, would help him in his 2024 run for U.S. President. That was when the audience started laughing, prompting the rapper to call them out, "What y'all laughing at?" He then stared at the audience for a long time before continuing his talk.
"We would create so many jobs! I'm not going to run, I'm going to walk," he said. "When you see headlines saying Kanye's crazy -- one in three African Americans are in jail and all the celebrities are in jail also because they can't say nothing, they got no opinion, they're so scared!"
During the panel, Kanye also revealed that he considered to legally change his name when discussing economic empowerment.
"Martin Luther King didn't get killed because he had a dream; he had something else he was gong to talk about. He talked about black empowerment, economic empowerment," the "Famous" rapper said. "When people say it's crass to call yourself a billionaire, I say I might legally change my name to Christian Genius Billionaire Kanye West for a year until y'all understand exactly what it is... It will be on the license plate."
Kanye didn't attend the event, which put a spotlight on the "thousands of makers and innovators from across the globe," alone as he was joined by wife Kim Kardashian. The makeup mogul was seen sitting in the audience during his panel.
