Trevor Noah on His Criticism of Kanye: ‘For Me, It’s Not a Beef’

Trevor Noah insists he has no beef with Kanye West.

The 38-year-old comedian addressed the issue in a between-the-scenes TikTok video posted by The Daily Show. The clip begins with an audience member asking Noah about his and Ye’s so-called “beef”—a term that he believed was inapplicable to the situation.

“Why am I beefing with Kanye? That’s an interesting way to phrase it because a beef has to go both ways,” Noah said. “Genuinely, it does. In my limited understanding of the world, beef has always been something that generally will happen between two hip-hop artists. I was never beefing with Kanye West. I was concerned about Kanye West.”

Noah went on to highlight Ye’s mental health struggles and how they’re largely ignored by his critics. The host pointed out that Kanye has been quite open about his health issues, and has even admitted to not taking his medication. Noah said it was “a little shitty” that some people would chose to platform and exploit Kanye during one of his “episodes.” 

“My grandfather was bipolar … and I’m not saying Kanye is, by the way—I’m just saying my grandfather was bipolar, and one thing we knew was when he was having one of his episodes, he could act in a certain way and could do certain things … but our job was to support him,” he explained. “It would be weird if I was there going, ‘Oh, my grandfather’s having an episode again. I’m going viral tonight!’ I think it’s a little bit strange.”

Noah reiterated that his criticism of Ye didn’t come from a bad place. The host has previously called out the rapper for his antisemitic remarks as well as his treatment of Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson. Ye responded to the latter criticism back in March, when he shared an Instagram post in which he used a racial slur directed at Noah. The social media platform suspended Ye’s account shortly after.

“For me, it’s not a beef …” he continued. “I don’t have beef with a human being who has expressed openly that they’re dealing with a mental health issue. I don’t have beef with that human being. What I have beef with is us as society not coming together around the person and going like, ‘Hey, hey, maybe this is not the moment to put a microphone in your face so that you just go off saying everything.’ If this is what you want to say when you’re on your medication, then that’s a different story. But because you’ve told us that, I’m not going to sit by and say that.”

You can hear Noah’s full comments below.