Kanye West responds to controversial slavery comment by comparing himself to Nat Turner

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Kanye West says slavery was a 'choice' for African-Americans

Kanye West turned up at the TMZ offices on Tuesday to film 'TMZ Live' and made controversial comments about slavery. West said 400 years of slavery 'sounds like a choice,' a statement that caused offense to at least one TMZ staffer.

While trying to do some damage control over comments he made that slavery "was a choice," Kanye West compared himself to both Nat Turner and Harriet Tubman.

Following a heated interview with TMZ, West took to Twitter and continued to share his thoughts on the topic of slavery.

West tweeted, "If this was 148 years ago I would have been more like Harriet or Nat."

Turner led the first successful slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, on August 21, 1831. It resulted in the death of more than 50 white people, and approximately 120 slaves died in the aftermath of the rebellion. Tubman, meanwhile, took a very different approach and quietly helped free slaves through The Underground Railroad.

“We are programmed to always talk and fight race issues. We need to update our conversation," West tweeted following his statements about Turner and Tubman.

West tweeted about Turner's famed revolt: "The Nat Turner movie never made it anywhere because it showed slaves revolting. I understand why my god brother Puff calls his network revolt."

The star attempted to explain his controversial comment that 400 years in slavery was "a choice" for African-Americans, which he said while at the TMZ offices on Tuesday.

“The reason why I brought up the 400 years point is because we can’t be mentally imprisoned for another 400 years. We need free thought now. Even the statement was an example of free thought…It was just an idea.”

In another tweet, West said he was "once again" being "attacked" for what he simply called "presenting new ideas."

“In school we need to learn how magic [sic] Johnson built his business not always about the past. Matter fact I’ve never even heard of a high school class that presents future ideas,” West said. “When the media masses and scholars talk about what started today. Here’s a title … the overground hell road.”

West then concluded his words on the slavery subject by tweeting a quote often attributed to Tubman that read, "I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves. - Harriet Tubman."

While appearing on an episode of "TMZ Live," West was asked about his recent support of President Trump and his answer turned to the concept of freedom, prompting some controversial words about the United States’ history with slavery.

“When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years?! That sounds like a choice. Like, you were there for 400 years and it’s all of you all? Like, we’re mentally in prison. Like, slavery goes too direct to the idea of blacks,” he said. “So prison is something that unites us as one race, blacks and whites being one race. We’re the human race.”

His comments triggered a response from TMZ staffer Van Lathan, who shouted across the newsroom, abandoning the “TMZ Live" format.

Lathan confronted West about his statements and said,  “I actually don’t think you’re thinking anything. I think what you’re doing right now is actually the absence of thought. And the reason that I feel like that is, Kanye, you’re entitled to your opinion; you’re entitled to believe whatever you want, but there’s fact and real life consequence behind everything you just said. While you are making music and being an artist and living the life that you’ve earned by being a genius, the rest of us in society have to deal with these threats to our lives. We have to deal with the marginalization that has come from the 400 years of slavery that you said, for our people, was ‘a choice’… Frankly, I’m disappointed, I’m appalled and, brother, I’m unbelievable hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something, to me, that’s not real.”

Many of those who saw the video had similar reactions on social media and slammed West's slavery comment.

Fox News' Tyler McCarthy contributed to this report.