Less than one week after the devastating storm Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and surrounding Louisiana areas, dozens of celebrities came together to host a telethon to raise money for victims.
Much of what surrounded the news that week concerned President George Bush and FEMA’s response to the citizens of New Orleans.
During the NBC telethon, rapper Kanye West, then one of the hottest new artists in music, appeared with actor Mike Myers. That was when Kanye uttered one of the most famous lines in live TV history.
“George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” West said.
West added a voice to the frustrations of many Americans who felt that had New Orleans been a predominantly white city, the national response would have been swifter and larger.
“I remember hearing the words that were coming out of his mouth and looking down at the script and [thinking], ‘this is not—this is not going well,’” the show’s musical director told Slate. “I remember saying [to someone] ‘it was good TV.’”
At the time of West’s comments, his 2005 followup to the legendary album “The College Dropout” was less than a week old, and most everyday citizens didn’t know much about the backpack rapper from Chicago.
Over the years, Kanye has defended his words, while also apologizing to George Bush in 2010.
“I would tell George Bush, in my moment of frustration, I didn’t have the grounds to call him a racist,” West told Matt Lauer on NBC in 2010. “But I believe that in a situation of high emotion like that, we as human beings don’t always choose the right words.”
Bush would go on to say that Kanye’s speech was one of the lowest moments of his presidency.
In the 10 years since, Kanye has continued to be open and honest—and sometimes a little profane—while crafting his public persona, something that started in earnest a year ago in 2005.
