Issa Rae takes jab at Kanye West during CFDA monologue
The actress mocked his comments last month on slavery.
Actress Issa Rae certainly didn't hold back when hosting the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards (CFDA) in Brooklyn, New York.
While reality star and businesswoman Kim Kardashian West was set to receive the Influencer Award later in the night, it was her husband and rapper Kanye West that was the target of one of Rae's jokes.
After making a statement on the red carpet earlier in the evening wearing a belt that read “Every n---- is a Star,” referencing a Boris Gardiner song, she followed that fashion choice up with a joke mocking the Chicago rapper for comments he made earlier this year about slavery.
"I’m about as fashionable as Kanye is black. Only when it’s convenient. That joke was my choice, just like slavery,” Rae said onstage Monday night, according to USA Today, who attended the show.
Rae's dig was aimed at an interview West gave last month.
"When you hear about slavery for 400 years -- for 400 years? That sounds like a choice. Like, you was there for 400 years and it's all of y'all?" he told TMZ in an interview.
During the interview, TMZ employee Van Lathan shared his outrage with West.
"While you are making music ... and living the life that you've earned by being a genius, the rest of us in society have to deal with ... the marginalization that's come from the 400 years that you said, for our people, was a 'choice,' ... I'm appalled," Lathan said to West.
Later, West apologized to Lathan.
The "Ye" musician posted on Twitter later that evening to clarify what he meant in the interview.
"To make myself clear. Of course, I know that slaves did not get shackled and put on a boat by free will," he wrote. "My point is for us to have stayed in that position even though the numbers were on our side means that we were mentally enslaved."
Later on in the night at the awards show, Kardashian West shook off the dig at her husband and accepted her award to which she joked how shocked she was to receive the award, "when I'm naked most of the time."
Aside from Rae's monologue and Kardashian West's award, Monday night also featured some of the biggest and brightest stars in fashion and film. Here are some of the looks below!