Those with long memories for Kanye lore may recall the artist getting into an aggressive argument with radio host Sway Calloway during an interview on the SiriusXM station Shade 45 back in 2013. While the two were friends and made up by the end of the interview, West did not take well to Sway’s questions about his earlier, initially money-losing attempts to break into the world of fashion.
While Sway attempted to identify with the challenges he too had faced in launching a clothing line, the interview degenerated into West creating whatever passed for memes back then by yelling “You ain’t got the answers, man!” while Sway tried to calm him down, saying “Kanye! Chill out, man!”
Well, some imaginative fan placed a snippet from that legendary interview over the music from Kendrick Lamar’s harrowing song “We Cry Together,” from his recent “Mr. Morale and the High Steppers” album, which depicts a harrowing argument between a couple in a toxic relationship. While Lamar’s song is certainly no joke, the juxtaposition places West’s long friendship with Sway in a comic light.
The crux of West and Sway’s argument came from the former taking shots at the latter’s clothing venture — “What’s the name of your clothing line? We don’t know” — and his understandable frustration after he admits that he lost $13 million trying “trying to empower [him]self.”
While they eventually calmed down and West spoke more reasonably — to be fair, he’d weathered a similar line of questioning from Charlamagne Tha God on “The Breakfast Club” hours earlier, it clearly touched a nerve. However, at the end of the program he did apologize to Sway, a very calm and friendly host, after being reprimanded: “Kanye, don’t yell at me on my show.”
West, of course, has had the last laugh on the apparel world: His Yeezy sneaker line, far more than his music, has made him a billionaire.
Additional reporting by June Aswad.