Quentin Tarantino Denies Kanye West’s Claim That He Gave Him The Idea For “Django Unchained”
As we all know too well, Kanye West firmly believes that slavery was a choice. And since we know that Kanye is prone to making Choice after Choice after Choice, it shouldn’t be surprising to learn that at one point, Kanye thought it would be a good choice for him to dress up like a slave and sing and dance for Quentin Tarantino for a music video/mini movie for his 2004 hit Gold Digger. Quentin, also a big fan of Choices, thought that was “a really, really funny idea,” but the collaboration never came to pass. So the world dodged a bullet we never even knew was headed our way, but we did get sprayed with a cache of N-words a few years later in 2012 when Django Unchained came out, which Kanye would like credit for. However, while promoting his new book on Jimmy Fallon Live, QT made it clear that credit for each and every one of those N-words is to be credited to him, and him alone. Quentin will get no argument from me on this point. As I always say, “your body (of work,) your Choice.”
Last week, Kanye sat for a two-hour interview with fellow Choice-maker, Piers Morgan, and complained about something, I’m not pushing play to find out what exactly, and mentioned that he pitched the idea to QT when he and Jamie Foxx were working on the music video for Gold Digger. Kanye says, “actually him and Jamie, they got the idea from me because the idea for Django, I pitched to Jamie Foxx and Quentin Tarantino as the video for ‘Gold Digger.” An assertion to which Quentin says, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Gold Digger, please.” Entertainment Weekly reports:
Quentin Tarantino is refusing to let Kanye West take credit as the creative mastermind behind his 2012 action film Django Unchained.
The Oscar-winning director took a moment to deny West’s claims that he pitched the idea for the revisionist Western to him and its lead actor Jamie Foxx while visiting Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday.
“There’s not truth to the idea that Kanye West came up with the idea of Django and then he told that to me, and I go, ‘Hey, wow, that’s a really great idea. Let me take Kanye’s idea and make Django Unchained out of it,'” he said. “That didn’t happen. I’d had the idea for Django for a while before I ever met Kanye.”
Instead, Tarantino said, the Donda rapper was interested in creating an ambitious film version of his 2004 debut album, The College Dropout.
“He wanted to get big directors to do different tracks from the album and then release it as this giant movie,” he recalled. “Not videos — nothing as crass as videos… They were going to be movies based on each of the different tracks.”
“I do think it was for the ‘Gold Digger’ video, that he would be a slave,” Tarantino said. “The whole thing was the slave narrative where he’s a slave and he’s singing ‘Gold Digger.’ And it was very funny. It was a really, really funny idea.”
Well, I don’t think it’s funny at all. He should have fucking done it! Then maybe we could have nipped Kanye’s rise to fame and fortune in the bud.
When host Jimmy Kimmel questioned the idea of a “funny slave movie,” Tarantino clarified his remarks.
“It was meant to be ironic,” he explained. “And it’s like a huge musical. I mean, like no expenses spared with him in this slave rag outfit, doing everything. And then that was also part of the pushback on it. But I wish he had done it. It sounded really cool. Anyway, that’s what he’s referring to.”
Just think, instead of Kanye being famous for shuckin’ and jivin’ for Donald Trump while wearing a MAGA hat, he’d only be famous for shuckin’ and jivin’ for QT while wearing a “slave rag outfit.” Not to get too Once Upon a Time in Hollywood up in here, but if that had happened, maybe Shannon Lee, Bruce Lee’s daughter would be President right now. Quentin, this is all on you! Here’s Jimmy interviewing the Frankenstein’s Monster of Torrance (the Kanye talk begins at 17:38).
Pic: YouTube