Kanye West suggests slavery was a 'choice' in heated TMZ segment

Kanye West is back in the public eye, and he doesn't seem eager to leave any time soon.

Over the past few weeks, the rapper has created some serious buzz by returning to Twitter to reveal his extreme thoughts on life and politics, interact with Donald Trump, share some private text messages, and drop a bunch of album release dates, including his own. Today he implied slavery was a choice. Seriously.

Last weekend he released a song about poop and another about politics, and on Tuesday he decided to keep the controversy coming when he stopped by TMZ offices to chat about light topics like Donald Trump, slavery, and freedom of thought.

TMZ shared a highlight video of the Kanye conversation, in which the rapper can be heard explaining his MAGA hat, the political messages he's sending, and why he believes slavery is a choice.

"We don't know how to think for ourselves, we don't know how to feel for ourselves. People say feel free but they don't really want us to feel free," West said, when asked to explain his political beliefs. "I feel a freedom in first of all just doing something that everybody tells you not to do."

"I just love Trump, that's my boy," Kanye went on passionately. "Trump is one of rap's favorite people."

The rapper then shared some thoughts on slavery, saying he believes we're all mentally restricted today.

"When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years?! That sounds like a choice," he said. "We're mentally in prison. I like the word prison cause slavery goes too direct to the idea of blacks."

Naturally, that didn't sit too well with many. As Kanye continued to discuss the concept of freedom, he began walking around and raising his voice to address the entire newsroom. TMZ's Van Lathan then stood up from his seat to fire back at the rapper and things got a bit heated.

"Frankly, I'm disappointed. I'm appalled. And brother, I'm unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something, to me, that's not real," Lathan said to the rapper.

Ye apologized to Lathan for hurting him.

UPDATE: May 1, 2018, 4:37 p.m. PDT West attempted to clarify his thought process with a series of tweets on Tuesday.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Kayne also posted a nearly two hour long interview online earlier today -- in case you are dying to hear more of his extremely controversial thoughts.