Kanye West says Obama never apologized for 'jackass' remarks

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Trump: Kanye West gets it

President Trump speaks on receiving support from famous hip-hop artist

Following up a whirlwind week of pro-Trump tweets and freewheeling interviews, rapper Kanye West on Tuesday called out former President Barack Obama for failing to apologize for calling him a "jackass" multiple times.

The former president first used the epithet to describe West in leaked 2009 interview footage after the rapper famously interrupted singer Taylor Swift's VMA acceptance speech.

The Atlantic reported that Obama again called West a "jackass" in 2012, before acknowledging that West is 'talented.'

But Obama has never apologized for the remarks or clarified that he was kidding, West lamented in an interview with television personality Charlamagne tha God that was posted online Tuesday.

"I'm your favorite," West said, referring to Obama. "But I'm not safe. But that's why you love me. So just tell me you love me! And tell the world you love me. Don't tell the world I'm a jackass.

"You know, he never called me to apologize. The same person who sat down with me and my mom, I think should have communicated with me directly and been like, ‘Yo, Ye, you, you know what it is," West said. "I’m in the room and it was just a joke."

West also insisted he is Obama's favorite artist, and expressed regret that the former president sometimes seemed to favor other musicians.

"I’m your favorite artist," West said in the interview. "You play 'Touch the Sky' at your inauguration, and now, all of a sudden, Kendrick (Lamar) and Jay-Z and all the people you invite to the White House, like, now these your favorite rappers?"

West also stated, "I am the greatest artist of all time." He added that it therefore "makes sense" that Obama would like him, since the former president has "good taste."

But West was careful to note he hasn't completely soured on Obama.

"I love Obama," West said at one point in the interview. "I'm sure we'll hang out, go to Richard Branson's island, whatever, it'll be cool. I just think we were in a period where he had so much stuff to deal with, he couldn't deal with a wildcard like me."

The rapper's tone was markedly different from his Twitter posts last week.

"Obama was in office for eight years and nothing in Chicago changed," West tweeted Thursday.

He also posted his support for Trump on the social media site, saying he loves the president and admires his independent thinking, even though he does not always agree with him.

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"I love the way Candace Owens thinks," West also tweeted. The post followed a lengthy string of pseudo-philisophical one-liners and platitudes, including "all you have to be is yourself" and "images are limitless and words aren't."

On Tuesday, West also turned up at the TMZ offices to film "TMZ Live," where he sparked outrage for suggesting that slavery was a "choice."

The interview format quickly deteriorated, with West shouting across the newsroom.

"When you hear about slavery for 400 years," West began. "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."