(AllHipHop News) On Wednesday (October 9th), Kanye West appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and addressed their differences which stemmed from Kimmel’s satire of Kanye West’s interview with Zane Lowe.
In an Q&A with Grantland, Kimmel admits to having a better understanding of Kanye’s “frustration”:
I think [Kanye] said it best. I think he said that he reads and sees a lot of things that frustrate him, and the difference is that in this case he was able to call me, whereas he isn’t able to call TMZ or whatever it is that bothers him.
jKimmel admitted to not viewed the Zane Lowe interview in full before his reenactment with child actors and actually did not see the full interview until the day before Kanye’s appearance on the show, When he did view the entire interview, Kimmel says he could understand Kanye’s view point on certain topics but did not invalidate the criticism they received:
I saw that he was very serious, and he felt like he’d made some good points — I’m sure that’s debatable, depending on your point of view. He then felt like I’d diminished it by making a joke out of it.
One poignant moment in the interview comes when the interviewer, Grantland staff writer Alex Pappademas mentioned that Kimmel has done similar parodies of artists such as Lady Gaga and then asked if Kimmel understood it was different because of Kanye’s race:
I don’t think the fact that he’s black has anything to do with it. In fact, I didn’t know he was black until you brought that up. I just think it’s about somebody who jokes around and somebody who doesn’t. Kanye’s not a jester. He’s speaking seriously, and I guess it wounded him somehow.
The interview with Kanye West helped increase the ratings of The Jimmy Kimmel Show Live! as it received a 1.2 rating in 1.2 rating in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 age group demographic in comparison to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno‘s 0.7 rating and The Late Show with David Letterman’s 0.5 rating. This fact has not gone unnoticed by Kimmel:
The lesson is, if you get yourself in a situation like this you will get huge ratings on your television show.