Following a trend of bizarre behaviour, The Shop has decided to pull its latest episode with Kanye West which reiterated “more hate speech.”
The Shop is a talk-show that stars LeBron James and Maverick Carter who quite simply have conversations and debates in a barber shop.
The series is well known for hosting a line-up of diverse individuals with differing opinions in the hope of stimulating interesting and thought provoking discussion. Previous guests have included Barack Obama, David Beckham, Chadwick Boseman, Will Smith and Whoopi Goldberg.
The fifth season is currently in development and was planning to release an episode featuring Kanye West.
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However, following a series of concerning statements from Kanye and a seemingly equally concerning taping, Carter released a statement to Andscape announcing the shelving of the episode.
“Yesterday we taped an episode of The Shop with Kanye West. Kanye was booked weeks ago and, after talking to Kayne directly the day before we taped, I believed he was capable of a respectful discussion and he was ready to address all his recent comments.”
“Unfortunately, he used The Shop to reiterate more hate speech and extremely dangerous stereotypes,” Carter continued. “We have made the decision not to air this episode or any of Kanye’s remarks. While The Shop embraces thoughtful discourse and differing opinions, we have zero tolerance for hate speech of any kind and will never allow our channels to be used to promote hate.”
“I take full responsibility for believing Kanye wanted a different conversation and apologise to our guests and crew. Hate speech should never have an audience.”
Other guests on the episode included shoe designer Salehe Bembury and Jeezy.
Lebron James was also not present at the taping of the episode.
According to Andscape, sources close to the production suggested West continued and furthered his recent anti-sematic remarks.
