A passionate and openly transparent Kanye West addressed over 50 media personnel on Sunday (February 6) as he outlined his plans for Black Future Month.
The roundtable discussion was organized by Hollywood Unlocked founder and CEO Jason Lee, who described the event as the defining of “an unstoppable movement.”
HipHopDX was among the invited inaugural Black Future Brunch guests seated at the large triangular table, which consisted of a spread of delectables such as manna, olives and cured honeycomb — instantly evoking comparisons to “The Last Supper.”
Over the course of 90 minutes, Kanye West spoke and engaged in conversation pertaining to his mission statement of creating Black Future Month movement as opposed to a moment. He spoke calmly and with clarity — a complete 180 degrees from how his personal life is playing out in the media, the point of the entire congregation to begin with. He proudly relished in his “cancel-proof” status while also condemning cancel culture as a whole, in addition to media articles with no intent other than to embarrass the celebrity.
“It’s not about me, it’s about us,” Kanye West said during the apex of the conversation. “They can’t tell us what to say. We’re too powerful. This is the future. There is no looking backward – only forwards.”
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Kanye went on to explain how his November 2021 Free Larry Hoover Benefit Concert with Drake was instrumental in showcasing positivity on a wide scale and spoke highly of the incarcerated Chicago ex-gang leader.
He additionally expressed disappointment in failing (or as he put it, “not be allowed”) to do a Louis Vuitton collaboration with late visionary Virgil Abloh during his tenure as creative director with the prestigious fashion house — as well as being blocked from speaking at his funeral last December.
Photo: Hesham Abdo/Hollywood Unlocked
Harkening back to his infamous 2015 interview where he asked Sway Calloway “how?” one person can infiltrate an industry in the name of good change, Kanye reiterated why there’s power in numbers across the board.
“Me and Virgil believed in Black design,” Ye said. “Now we need to invest in Black media. God uses me as a vessel – we declare Black Future Month. The future – not the past.”
Former Super Bowl champion, NFL Pro-Bowler and newly-minted Donda Sports ambassador Antonio Brown also jumped in the conversation midway, pledging his allegiance to the cause.
As an additional bonus, invited media were also allowed for the first time to witness Kanye’s acclaimed Sunday Service, which featured a Gospel rendition of The College Dropout classic single “Through The Wire” and a number from the kid’s choir, which co-starred Chicago, Saint and Psalm West.
Check out more stills from the inaugural Black Future Brunch below and back into HipHopDX for our exclusive conversation with Antonio Brown.
Photos: Hesham Abdo/Hollywood Unlocked
black clothing, black background, black cloth over the table… this is a bit intimidating. kanye even shaved his head. i think nowadays black people are where they want to be in society around the world they have made progress over the last twenty years or so. i think they will continue to win small victories. but when it comes to raping a white woman nailing her to a table or giving a kid in school a hard time for being white that i will not support. they have this bigoted idea that mostly white people are racist full stop. its not true.
Progress? The black net-worth has decreased by 14% over the past two decades. The illusion of black wealth is keeping us stagnant. African Americans are not making progress across the board. We have a lot of work to do. We need to focus on solutions that can propel us forward. Not a Ye fan but I respect the purpose of his proposed Black Future Month. We know about our past as slaves now let’s focus on a future.
well these days i think progress has been made thanks to a liberal media and at large the catholic church. i want you to look back in to the 90s and see how black people were being represented. so we had 9/11 and its like shit this is such an opportune time we have to change the world and blacks are a part of that, all over the world, not just black americans. i can read society and there is a groundswell don’t just ignore it and think this isn’t enough. M.A.G.A..
American was great when?!
Evan, when was America ever great?!
when there was success. trillions in debt is not great.
We need to embrace, the past, present and future…think about it…he’s referencing Virgil but isn’t Virgil in the past? So is Pac, Miles, Coltrane, Big L, Kobe, Nipsey, Malcolm, Ali, etc…We need to embrace all of time because the fact of the matter is we’re beyond it…we’re timeless…
all i see is a table full of hypocrite tricks still dependent on massa with herpes and black babies that will be raised by white bimbos
Cultists. Cultists everywhere. This is how it starts. One crazy person convinces a bunch of idiots on a stupid idea. He probably had them at the beginning but once he starts complaining about not being able to do a fashion line, it makes it all about him again. I would avoid the fuck out of Kanye West.