Michael Che Blasted Kanye Backstage After ‘SNL’ Outburst

In 2018, Kanye West, as he was known at the time, went rogue on Saturday Night Live. As the cast gathered on stage at the end of the show to say good night, musical guest West went on a rambling, pro-Trump rant that was cut off as the show ended. West called out SNL cast members, claiming that he was bullied for his MAGA hat. 

And he still wasn’t done with the comics. “You can’t be controlled by monolithic thoughts,” Kanye said, gesturing at Weekend Update anchor Michael Che. “You can’t always have, every time you have a Black subject matter like (Bill) Cosby that you have to have a Black comedian talking about him. You know what I mean?” 

Che made his feelings known soon after, posting a message to his Instagram Story that a Redditor made sure to screengrab before it vanished forever.

A new documentary about Kanye, In Whose Name, reveals that Che did more than post a pissy comment on social media. He also confronted the rapper backstage at 30 Rock about the unsettling diatribe.

Someone’s camera caught a visibly agitated Che getting in Kanye’s face. “You good with me? For real? I’m the Black comedian that made a joke about Cosby. That’s fucked up,” Che said. “I work here. I work here. Like, come on man. We treat everyone that comes in like family, and you gonna sell us out. Like, that’s fucked up, man. Like we look up to you, we love you. What you got against us?”

Kanye admitted that he did have a few things against SNL. “That’s cool, but airing it out like that without letting us be able to reply is kinda foul,” Che said. “You wait til the last song and then say that foul shit to us, and we brought you in here.”

Kanye, clearly not used to being confronted about his actions, returned a meek, “Aw, man, I love you though, bro.” 

“I love you, too,” Che says. “I’m a fan. Why would you do that to me?”

The confrontation lasted only about a minute, but rapper Consequence, who’s also in the 2018 clip, posted a video on Twitter this weekend claiming there's more to the story. 

Consequence claims that the documentary doesn’t show Che coming back for another round “because he was at his job and he felt a way.” At that point, Consequence says he told Che, “Either you back the fuck up or we can go outside.”

Che chose to back up, according to Consequence, at which point he got Kanye and his crew out of there. Don’t believe him? Just ask Che himself, Consequence says, or Kim Kardashian. 

Don’t expect a response from Che, however. 2018 was a long time ago, and he’s too busy making latte art on Instagram.