Kanye West Opened Up About What He Really Meant By His 13th Amendment Tweet

Kanye West is at it again. The famed rapper is making headlines once again for not only calling for the 13th Amendment to be abolished on Twitter, but also further clarifying his tweet. West spoke to TMZ about all the hoopla surrounding him right now and he definitely had a lot to say. And honestly, Kanye West’s response to his 13th Amendment tweet is interesting, to say the least.

For those of you unfamiliar with the 13th Amendment, it abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except in cases where they can be used as punishment for a crime. The Amendment reads, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

In his original tweet, West wrote the following while wearing a red Make America Great Again hat:

this represents good and America becoming whole again. We will no longer outsource to other countries. We build factories here in America and create jobs. We will provide jobs for all who are free from prisons as we abolish the 13th amendment. Message sent with love

Elite Daily previously reached out to West's team for comment on the tweet but did not hear back by the time of publication.

While speaking with Harvey Levin of TMZ in a video posted Oct. 1, West addressed a tweet he posted that called for the abolishment of the 13th Amendment. Here’s what he said:

I want to say is abolish was the wrong language. I misspoke by saying abolish. Amend is the right language and what’s awesome — I don’t say dope, I say awesome because there’s power in words — lovely, what’s beautiful about our constitution is we can amend it.

Elite Daily reached out to West's team for comment, but did not hear back by the time of publication.

Then he read something his friend wrote:

In 1865, the 13th Amendment stated that no man is destined to slavery or involuntary servitude unless convicted of a crime. This translates to: in order to make a free man a slave, all you have to do is convict them of a crime.

Before responding, Levin took a moment to process West’s words. “So, what you’re saying is they carve out prisons for involuntary servitude and you could use prison as a pretext to bring involuntary servitude back. Is that what you’re saying?”

West’s response was very long, detailed, and complicated, perhaps more complicated than many can even process without some further reading and information. In any case, here’s what he said:

Well, it has. There’s people getting paid eight cents a week working for companies that are privately owned. And a lot of them are first-time offenders, a lot of them are non-violent crimes. And then also, we deal with … we’re not dealing with the mental health and the therapy because, I’m going to say that, I stand on that the majority that are in prison are there due to a reaction to a situation that they’re in. A reaction to not having an understanding of how to create industry because their dad didn’t have a business, so they didn’t know how to make money. Not having access to currently legalized forms of industry. Also being brainwashed to feel like they’re taking a side — red or blue, a gang side. ‘This is my block.’ A block they don’t even own. And then, that gets promoted in the music and the music is not even owned by the people that are saying these things. And then the next thing you know, you get all these, you get people in jail.

Then, after laying that all out for Levin, West offered a solution:

There should be a group of super knowledgeable people that comes from all cultures that then make the amendments on our Constitution. I didn’t say modern; I didn’t say new because that notes a specific time. Time is used to control us and to control our energy. There needs to people who look like the people who are being spoke about.

So, West is essentially calling for a more diverse and inclusive system that governs decision-making for the country as a whole. And that isn’t a terrible thing to consider, I suppose.