Steve McQueen Breaks Down His Understanding Of Kanye West’s Recent Antics

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Steve McQueen and Kanye West worked with one another on a few projects in the past. Most notable is McQueen directing Kanye’s All Day/ I Feel Like That video where he opens up about his mental health issues rapping “Do you feel tempered outbursts, that you cannot control? Feeling lonely, even when you are with people, feeling blocked. Feeling blue, sad, feeling disinterested in things, feeling fearful.”

Bossip’s Xilla Valentine flew out to Chicago to sit down with Steve McQueen for his new movie Widows, starring Viola Davis, Brian Tyree Henry and Liam Neeson. We spoke about the movie, but BOSSIP also asked McQueen about Ye’s recent antics and he said, “I spoke to him very briefly after the TMZ thing, I imagine a lot of people did. Obviously, I loved him but I didn’t think that was the platform to have that conversation. To say I was disappointed is an understatement of course, but its one of those things… Listen I understand Kanye in a way… Well, I think I do, obviously, everyone thinks they understand people and don’t.  What I’m trying to say is I understand it in a way that he wants to be a free Black man. He wants to be totally free. Free, free. He wants to be FREE.”

McQueen continues, “You know, for him to have an idea of something that he believes in or for him to choose against the majority of people, I imagine is his idea of being free I can do whatever I want to do. Freedom of mental slavery, free from bondage. As a Black man, I understand that in the western world. I don’t necessarily agree with how he is doing it but I know where it comes from. It comes from the idea of Black people being enslaved in one way, shape, form or the other and I totally get it. He wants to be liberated.” 

“Widows” is in theaters everywhere November 16th.