Christina Aguilera Defends ‘Misunderstood’ Kanye West: ‘He Gives With His Gut’

Kanye West has received a lot of flak lately for his controversial views, especially regarding slavery and President Donald Trump.

A lot of people have accused him of having mental health issues, while others hit him for being narrow-minded and insensitive. But despite these criticisms, there are still some people who are standing up for West.

One of them is fellow singer Christina Aguilera, who said during an interview with W Magazine that West was simply “misunderstood.”

“Kanye, you know, he says things. His mind works in mysterious ways. I’ll just say that. I’ve always been a fan of his music … If anything, he gives with his gut. You can feel it in his beats. It’s genuine. It feels like his truth, even if it’s not going to go over well,” she said.

Whenever they would talk, Aguilera said West “would go on about other subjects and stuff like that.” But his passion for his beliefs only mirrors her own.

“But then he would kind of remind me of myself. Like, oh, okay. He just has a different way of thinking and he'll trail off in his own thoughts. You get the sense, though, that there's a good guy there. Sometimes we’re all just a little misunderstood,” she said.

Meanwhile, John Mayer said in a different interview with Beats 1 Radio that West is a creative genius, and he “can pull anything into existence that he wants. He is maybe the greatest summoner of creative energy. I’ve seen him do it, it’s a magic trick.”

Mayer has witnessed this creative genius firsthand when he contributed to the track “Go!” by Common. “I was in the studio with Kanye West and Common… and I actually had this line, ‘On the count of three, everybody run back to your fantasy,’ so that was my line. And then Kanye adds ‘Go.’ Genius,” he said.

West’s most recent controversy started when he appeared on TMZ Live to share his thoughts about slavery and opioids.

He said during the interview that “free thought” is important because it would make the world a better place. He said: “When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years? That sound like a choice. Like, you was there for 400 years, and it’s all of y’all? It’s like we’re mentally in prison. I like the word ‘prison’ because slavery goes too direct to the idea of blacks. It’s like, slavery — holocaust. Holocaust — Jews, slavery is blacks. Prison is something that unites us as one race - blacks and whites being one race.”