It’s been almost a year since Rhymefest got into a fairly heated feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian over Donda’s House, the Chicago-based nonprofit Rhymefest founded alongside Ye and Donnie Smith.
But now, it looks like Rhymefest, Kim, and Ye have squashed any misunderstandings. Rhymefest recently stopped by Sway in the Morning to discuss the sit-down the three of them had for an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, starting at the 9:15 mark above.
On the episode, Rhymefest told Kim and Ye, “Kanye is from a village. And the village was feeling like our dear brother turned his back on the village.”
To which Ye responded, “You can’t make positive by doing negative. You could’ve said, ‘Hey, can I call you. I wanna just talk to you directly before I say something.'”
According to Rhymefest, he did call Kanye. When the two spoke on the phone, Ye agreed to do something for the community that he didn’t follow through with, which led Rhymefest to speak out. On KUWTK, Kanye said, “But even if I said I would, I was going through some shit.” Rhymefest agreed but pointed out “it was all negative.”
“Yeah," Kanye responded, "the shit I was going, that’s why it’s called 'through some shit,' 'cause it’s negative."
Rhymefest also spoke on the necessity for him to clear the air with Kim in order to have a healthy relationship with Kanye, starting at the 12:20 mark. “Me and Ye grew up together but if me and Kim ain’t right, then it’s difficult for me and Ye to hang out and be right, in our brotherhood. So I had to have a conversation with his wife about who I was.”
He also claimed he's seen people steal from Kanye: “I’ve seen family members steal from him. I’ve seen people try to do things and be like, ‘I’m your friend,’ and then warn you about somebody else 'cause they trying to take they position. He’s extremely sensitive. ... But the one thing I can say about Kanye, he’s never tried to hurt anybody. And I can’t say that for everybody.”
Last May, Rhymefest claimed that Ye had abandoned Donda's House and told Rhymefest, “fuck the youth of Chicago.” Kim came to Ye's defense in a string of tweets that accused Rhymefest of spreading lies, to which Rhymefest responded with a lengthy personal letter of his own. The nonprofit organization then announced that it would be changing its name due to the “recent events,” now going by Art of Culture, Inc.
In a statement, Donnie Smith insisted the charity will continue its commitment to Chicago’s youth, despite the name change and severed ties with Kanye.
