Kanye West had a meltdown backstage at the "Saturday Night Live" studios and threatened to walk off and pull his performance from the live broadcast just mere minutes before he was due to appear onstage, New York Post's Page Six reported. West's expletive-filled rant was caught on tape and obtained by Page Six, in which the rapper dissed Taylor Swift and made grandiose comparisons.
The hip-hop artist was reportedly upset because NBC staffers had pulled up the shiny flooring he designed for the stage during his performance because it reflected the lights, which clashed with a video screen behind him, according to Page Six. West found out about the flooring minutes before he was set to perform and went off on his rant.
"Look at that sh-t, they took my f--king stage off'a 'SNL' without asking me. Now I'm bummed. That and Taylor Swift, fake a--," West could be heard saying in the audio clip. "Now I ain't gonna do this, we're breaking the mother f--king internet. I went through six years of this f--king sh-t. Let's get to it, bro. Let's get to it, bro!"
West went on and started to compare himself to the legendary artist Pablo Picasso, iconic filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar and Saint Paul, the apostle who taught the gospel of Christ in the Bible.
"Are they f--king crazy? Bro! By 50 percent, Stanley Kubrick, Apostle Paul, Picasso, f--king Picasso and Escobar. By 50 percent more influential than any other human being," West continued. "Don't f--k with me! Don't f--k with me! Don't f--k with me! By 50 percent, dead or alive, by 50 percent for the next thousand years. Stanley Kubrick. Ye."
The "Jesus Walks" rapper threatened to walk off and leave, but "Saturday Night Live" creator and producer Lorne Michaels talked him into staying.
Listen to his NSFW rant below.
