A new documentary shows a tense confrontation between Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) and Michael Che after the rapper’s infamous on-air rant on Saturday Night Live.
In the doc In Whose Name, the “Weekend Update” anchor can be seen backstage expressing his frustration and disappointment with Ye in the moments after the “Runaway” musician’s impromptu speech on a 2018 episode of the show.
“You good with me?” Che asks Ye after his rant, in which the rapper defended his support of Donald Trump and alleged that the SNL cast and crew members bullied him backstage for wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat.
“That was f—ed up!” Che adds.
To which West responds, “Why was that?”
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Ye in the Oval Office of the White House in 2018
Che then slams the musician for overtly criticizing him for wanting to make jokes about Bill Cosby, as the rapper declared during his diatribe, “You can’t always have every time you got a Black subject matter like Cosby, that you have to have a Black comedian talk about it” while gesturing in Che’s direction.
“Why you gotta call me out on the f—in’ [stage] if I don’t got a chance to say anything for myself?” Che presses him.
Ye then says that he was actually criticizing Che’s costar Leslie Jones. “I wasn’t callin’ — I said that about Leslie coming back and they wanna do that,” the musician says.
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for Ye, Che, Jones, and SNL for comment.
“I’m the Black comedian that made a joke about Cosby,” Che replies. That’s f—ed up. Why would you do that to me?”
Ye deflects his question, responding, “Aw, man, I love you though, bro.”
Che shoots back, “I love you too. I’m a fan. But why would you do that to me? I work here! I work here! Come on, man.”
He continues, “We treat everybody that come in like family, and you’re gonna sell us out? That’s f—ed up, man! We look up to you, we love you. What you got against us?”
In Whose Name?
Ye in the 2025 documentary ‘In Whose Name’
Ye then admits, “I mean, I do have things against SNL in general.”
Che responds, “That’s cool, but airing it out like that without letting us be able to reply is kinda foul.”
Ye concedes the point. “Yeah, you right about that,” he tells Che.
The comedian then says, “You wait til the last song and then say that foul s— to us, and we brought you in here.”
Che later reiterates, “You’re a hero to us, man. We love you. Seriously, we love you. That’s wrong to do to us, man.”
Dana Edelson/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
Michael Che on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 2015
Earlier in the doc, Ye can be seen discussing his decision to wear his MAGA hat during a meeting with Che and SNL producer Steve Higgins.
“When I wear the hat, it ain’t about every one of this man’s principles,” the rapper says of Trump. “It’s not about the detention centers, which we know were here during a bunch of presidents. It ain’t about, does a 72-year-old white man give a f— about Black people? It ain’t about that. It’s about 1984. Orwell. It’s about mind control. It’s about Big Brother. It’s about if I use the word ‘Hitler,’ am I now canceled, did I lose my Adidas deal, if I say the word ‘Hitler’ out loud?”
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Other SNL alums previously recalled their discomfort during Ye’s on-stage rant in the documentary SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night.
Ego Nwodim, who was on stage behind the musician as he discussed Trump, said that she wished she’d been off-camera for the segment. “I was like, ‘I don’t wanna be up here for this, and I don’t agree with this, and standing up here looks like I’m standing in solidarity.'”
Meanwhile, Kenan Thompson said that he left the stage as soon as he noticed Ye winding up to speak. “When he grabbed the mic, and was just wandering around, you could see that he was gearing up to say something. I was like, ‘I’m out!'” Thompson said. “It would have been cool if he just had did the music thing, and, I don’t know, just spoke through the hat, I guess, ’cause the hat was loud.”
In Whose Name, directed by Nico Ballesteros, is playing now in theaters.
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