More insight from Ye’s exclusive interview with Hollywood Unlocked has been shared, and he’s now opening up about his alleged altercation with a man who wanted his autograph last week.
In the sit-down discussion with Jason Lee, the artist formerly known as Kanye West explained that he just finished two songs in a studio earlier in the day, and was outside around 3 a.m. Thursday when the incident took place.
“And this dude, he just had this real attitude, like, ‘What you gonna do? And see that,’” Ye, who TMZ previously reported as being a “named suspect” in connection with a battery incident, recalled. “Imma just tell you, that blue COVID mask ain’t stop that knockout, you know what I’m saying?”
Lee then asked Ye if the alleged altercation took place over taunting, disrespect, or privacy issues, and Yeezy explained that it was a combination of the three, sharing that that’s “how Hollywood be.” The man Ye allegedly punched outside the Soho Warehouse was 40-year-old Justin Poplawski, who is notorious for getting autographs from celebrities for the last 25 years, according to the US Sun. The apparent autograph collector who Ye says provoked him told the publication that he was “trying to live life and get back home” and has “other things to take care of.”
“Look, all I’m saying, I love the paparazzi, I love the press, I love the media,” Ye shared. “But then they send those two, probably like some agents or something to really gaslight the situation.”
Also in the discussion with Hollywood Unlocked, Ye opened up about his relationship with his estranged wife Kim Kardashian, alleging that security denied him from entering her home despite his oldest daughter North wanting him to visit. Ye said he first caught wind that he wasn’t going to be let in the home Monday, as he was picking his kids up from school, when security stopped him “at the gate.”
“So at that point, security was in between me and my children and that’s what was not going to happen,” Ye shared, as Entertainment Tonight reports. “But I didn’t want to argue about it. So I just chilled, took my kids to school, and then took my kids back. I am driving. I bring them back and North was like, ‘I want you to come upstairs and see something.’ And it’s like, ‘Oh, Daddy can’t come see something. Daddy can’t come inside.’ But that hadn’t been defined.”
Ye then elaborated, detailing how Kardashian allegedly hasn’t talked with him about any restrictions for visiting the home, and that her new boyfriend Pete Davidson was inside the residence when Ye wanted to visit with his children. He then requested two of his “female cousins” visit the home and speak with Kim, and explain that “certain things that are not finna be done and be done under the rug.”
“I was like, I am the richest Black man and North’s father, right, and the security was able to stop me from going into the room with my daughter and that had not been defined,” he said. “And I am hearing that the new boyfriend is actually in the house that I can’t even go to. And that’s where I call my cousins. And my cousins is real opinionated, you know that. And I said, ‘I need you to go and say these two things.’ Security ain’t going to be in between me and my children, and my children ain’t going to be on TikTok without my permission.”
Later in the discussion, Ye shared that he doesn’t mind having deals “blocked” or jokes being made about him on Saturday Night Live, which Davidson is a cast member on and which Kardashian previously hosted, adding, “but I can tell you straight up, don’t play with my kids.”
As for his thoughts on Kardashian’s relationship with Davidson—who he name-dropped on the Friday-released track “Eazy” with The Game—he asked “how you gonna bring me to SNL and kiss the dude you dating right in front of me.”
“I can have my principles and things I’ve changed things, and I backslide, and I haven’t been the best Christian and things the media can make seem some kind of ways,” Ye said. “But at the end of the day, I’m Jesus gang. I’m about family, just me and my kids, parenting. And I mean, my kids’ mom we not together. I’m still gonna be the best dad.”
