After apparently breaking things off with Julia Fox, Kanye West seems to have again turned his focus back around to reuniting with estranged wife Kim Kardashian. Before the truck full of roses and all-caps Valentine’s Day plea, however, the Donda rapper set his sights on Kardashian’s boyfriend Pete Davidson, declaring “Civil War” on the Saturday Night Live cast member. The rapper's grievances extended beyond Davidson himself, as Ye called out some of his friends and colleagues, including SNL’s Michael Che.
In a since-deleted post on Instagram, Kanye West offered to double Michael Che’s salary to entice him to leave the NBC sketch show so that he wouldn’t have to work with Pete Davidson any longer. More specifically, Ye's all-caps offer said:
I’LL DOUBLE WHATEVER THEY PAYING YOU JUST SO YOU DONT HAVE TO LOOK AT THAT PAWN EVER AGAIN BIG LOVE.
Michael Che, who has no doubt received quite a few bizarre messages across social media, responded in kind with a photo on his own page, countering the offer with some humorous demands written in a notebook, which read (via Cosmo):
Sorry, Ye, but I would never betray my friends. For anything less than TRIPLE salary. That’s right, $90k per year! Full medical. Full dental. Four weeks vacay. Corner office. Plus, a pair of Red Octobers. Size 12. And you gotta make some beats for my band, ‘The Slap Butts.’ What else, what else. And you gotta tell me what you’re gonna wear to work the night before so we can look like twins. You do that for me, and I’ll Rambo that whole building.
The notepad-sourced counteroffer — which has since been deleted from Michael Che’s Instagram — appeared to mimic one of Kanye West’s posts from the weekend, where he showed the date written on a notepad to prove the things he was posting were actually his thoughts and not those of a hacker. Che hilariously "revealed" that tripling his salary would only take him to $90,000, with part of his “demands” included twinning with the fashion icon. I gotta hear this band of his, too.
Michael Che wasn’t the only friend of Pete Davidson’s who got caught in the crossfire, either. Kanye West also said his upcoming album Donda 2 will not feature Kid Cudi because of the Don’t Look Up actor’s friendship with Davidson.
Kanye West subsequently deleted most of his more controversial Instagram posts — but only after revealing that Kim Kardashian, over concern for Pete Davidson’s safety, had asked Ye to stop posting about her new boyfriend. As the rapper attended the Super Bowl with his kids North and Saint, Kardashian and Davidson celebrated Valentine's Day early by going out to a holiday dinner in Brooklyn. Despite increasing security concerns for the comedian, Davidson doesn’t seem to be deterred by the recent drama, and hopefully West will get to a point where he doesn’t feel the need to offer people money to stay away from his estranged wife’s new boyfriend.
We’ll be able to see more of Kim Kardashian soon, when her family’s new Hulu reality series The Kardashians premieres April 14. Until then, check out our 2022 TV Schedule to see what other shows are coming soon.
