Kobe Bryant Discusses Kanye West Slavery Comments, Says He ‘Completely’ Disagrees

NBA star Kobe Bryant is the latest personality to weigh in on Kanye West’s controversial comments about slavery.

When Bryant surprised a group of 300 high school students at the pop-up festival called WE RISE in Los Angeles on Tuesday, he was questioned about West’s statements about slavery.

“I’m sure the same way everybody else here in this room feels,” he answered. “‘What the hell are you talking about?’ I think that was my reaction as is everybody else’s reaction.”

Bryant explained that Americans have the “right to say whatever it is that you want to say.” Still, he “completely” disagrees with what West said. He also said that the “Runaway” rapper is “one of these entertainers that’s always in a constant state of growth” and “doing a lot of questioning internally himself.”

West opened up a lengthy discussion when he said in an interview with TMZ Live that 400 years of slavery was a “choice.”

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.”

Many were quick to criticize West for this, but fellow singer Christina Aguilera gave him the benefit of the doubt.

She 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.