Kanye West name-drops Taylor Swift in leaked ‘SNL’ rant

MANILA, Philippines – Kanye West reportedly went off on a rant backstage at Saturday Night Live when he performed on the February 13 episode of the show.

In an audio clip released by the New York Post‘s Page Six, Kanye can be heard saying: “Look at that sh-t, they took my f-ckin’ stage offa SNL without asking me. Now I’m bummed. That and Taylor Swift, fake -ss. Now I ain’t gonna do this, we’re breaking the motherf-cking Internet. I went through 6 years of this f-cking sh-t. Let’s get to it bro. Let’s get to it bro!”

Kanye continued, saying that he’s 50 percent more influential than certain icons, dead or alive: “Are they f-cking crazy? Bro! By 50 percent, Stanley Kubrick, apostle Paul, Picasso… f-cking Picasso and Escobar. By 50 percent more influential than any other human being. Don’t f-ck with me!”

The Page Six report said that Kanye’s rant was directed at the SNL crew, who had changed his stage set-up at the last minute. Kanye, they said, was threatening to walk out and not do the show.

Meanwhile, other reports say that the audio clip was not directed at the SNL staff, but was a private moment between Kanye and his own crew: “He did not yell at SNL staff. The audio was secretly recorded while he was venting his frustration in a private moment with his team,” a source told Billboard. 

According to those reports, Kanye was upset about set changes 30 minutes before the start of the show. They added that Kanye was on good terms with SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels, and the rest of the staff, at the end of the night. 

Kanye’s SNL rant happened a day after he claimed on Twitter that the “Famous” lyric “I made that b-tch famous,” referring to Taylor, was created by the singer herself. (READ: Kanye West on ‘Famous’ line: ‘I did not diss Taylor Swift’)

However, Taylor’s rep stated previously that Taylor didn’t know about that particular line in the song.

A few days later, Taylor appeared to address the issue in her Grammys acceptance speech, saying: “There are gonna be people along the way, there are gonna be people who try to undercut your success, or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame. (WATCH: Did Taylor Swift throw shade at Kanye West in her Grammy acceptance speech?)

“But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you’re going, you’ll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you that put you there.” – Rappler.com