The fate of Kanye West’s record label, G.O.O.D. Music, has been muddied with the revelation that it’s now without a president, after Pusha T further distanced himself from its controversial founder this week.
Pusha (real name Terrence Thornton) was appointed president of G.O.O.D. Music in 2015, taking over from Che Pope. Active with the former Def Jam imprint for the past seven years, Thornton was its longest-serving president (all three of his predecessors had stuck with the role for three years). However, in a new interview with XXL, he’s made it clear that he’s no longer associated with any projects or organisations tied to West.
Asked by the publication if he’d kept his post at G.O.O.D. amid West’s current string of controversies – the bulk of which involving his antisemitic comments and Nazi apologism – Thornton replied bluntly: “No. No No, I’m not.” He went on to clarify that he has “a 50/50 venture with Def Jam” for both his personal endeavours as an artist and those of his own label imprint, the Heir Wave Music Group (which he founded in 2020).
It comes after Thornton publicly criticised West for his antisemitism last month, saying in an interview with the Los Angeles Times: “It’s definitely affected me. It’s been disappointing. As a Black man in America, there is no room for bigotry or hate speech. So yeah. It’s been very disappointing.”
Thornton – who had previously been close friends with West, having worked with him on all of his own solo records up to this year (and several of West’s) – affirmed to XXL that he hasn’t spoken to his disgraced colleague since the Times interview.
He mentioned that the last time they spoke personally was during his recent tour for ‘It’s Almost Dry’ (which ended on October 30), explaining: “I just expressed myself. I express myself to him a lot. He expressed his thoughts to me. And he got off the phone saying, ‘Thank you. I know you don’t agree with me, but you never kill me in the public. And some people can’t wait to do that.’
“We started working together in 2010. So, my relationship with him has never been like everybody else’s in regard to the filter. I never had a filter with him. I’ve always spoke my mind. People gotta remember, too. This isn’t new for me, when it comes to disagreeing with him politically and things like that.”
Thornton went on to stress that he finds West’s antisemitism and pro-Nazi rhetoric “wrong” and “nothing to tap dance around”, but as far as how it relates to their personal dynamic, “it’s just me and him having a difference of opinion yet again”. He noted, though, that he is “for sure” affected by West’s most recent outbursts, and that “at the end of the day, shit is being said today that’s beyond disappointing”.
On Thornton’s decision to distance himself from West now, he explained: “[West] knows I will do everything I gotta do and wanna do. In regard to anything that jeopardizes my look, my pride, anything. He knows that. He knows there’s no talking me off any ledges. He just can’t do it. With him knowing that.
“I got too much pride to ask somebody to not move a certain way. I don’t do it. But I’m going to react as Coo Coo Cal as I fucking want to when I feel like something is not going in my favor. It is what it is, man.”
As for whether Thornton sees himself reconnecting with West in the future, he said: “[West is] not speaking to me now. If you ain’t with it, you ain’t down. And I ain’t with it. I’m not budging on that. I’m not with it. I heard about this new stuff [on InfoWars]. I don’t know. It’s something that just sort of tells me he’s not well, at the same time. I will say that. It’s going to places where it’s no way to move around it.”
Earlier this year, Thornton spoke to NME about his creative process with West, explaining that the only thing they share in common “is our love of street rap”, and “everything else is a debate because we’re just very different people”.
He continued: “He’s very emotional and I am way more calculated than him. So, music is never the debate; it’s the strategy that is the debate with us all day long. His superpower is his instinct, so when that’s your superpower, the shit works the majority of the time.”
‘It’s Almost Dry’, Thornton’s fourth album as Pusha T, arrived back in April. Thornton himself described it as the “rap album of the motherfucking year”, while NME gave it a five-star review, and earlier this month, declared it to be the 17th best album of 2022. In the new year, he’ll take the record on tour to Europe and the UK.
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