--- title: Late Night Claps Back at Kanye West Slavery Comments in Rap description: 'Late Night with Seth Meyers' writer Amber Ruffin has some choice words for Kanye West following his recent controversial comments. canonical: https://time.com/5264534/amber-ruffin-kanye-west/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-03T15:22:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:52:36.980Z og:title: Late Night Claps Back at Kanye West With a Blistering Rap og:description: Amber Ruffin is a writer for Seth Meyers — and has some choice words for Kanye og:url: https://time.com/5264534/amber-ruffin-kanye-west/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73b5a0e722c48927/69892f754ee2625ee4311b1a/screen-shot-2018-05-03-at-11-12-26-am.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: amber-ruffin-late-night og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Late Night Claps Back at Kanye West With a Blistering Rap twitter:description: Amber Ruffin is a writer for Seth Meyers — and has some choice words for Kanye twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73b5a0e722c48927/69892f754ee2625ee4311b1a/screen-shot-2018-05-03-at-11-12-26-am.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Late Night Comedy Takes on Kanye West's Slavery Comments With a Comeback Rap  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner May 3, 2018 3:22 PM UTC  YouTube  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner May 3, 2018 3:22 PM UTC Comedian [Seth Meyers](http://time.com/5234528/seth-meyers-baby-son-lobby/) didn’t feel comfortable commenting on controversial rapper [Kanye West’s opinions](http://time.com/5263677/van-lathan-kanye-west-tmz-slavery/) of slavery during his show Wednesday night — but luckily one of his writers, Amber Ruffin, was there to step in for the _Late Night_ host and provide some choice insights [into the subject.](http://time.com/5263242/kanye-west-slavery-tweets-history/) “My biggest concern is, your words will effect how black children see themselves. You’re telling them that it is their fault that they are at a disadvantage,” she explained, as if speaking directly to West. “So now, I have no choice but to counteract all the harm you’ve done.” Meyers wasn’t sure how she could possibly combat West’s [outsized celebrity influence](http://time.com/5262337/kanye-west-slavery-a-choice/), but Ruffin had a solution: “By speaking directly to the hearts of young people using the most powerful art form known to man: rap.” Ruffin is, as she admits, not the world’s greatest (or even most mediocre) rapper. But she manages to fit a lot of education into a few lines — even if her ability to rhyme is more or less missing, as Meyers points out. “To imply that slaves had a choice minimizes slavery,” she raps, “and undercuts the strength of the black community — something that Kanye used to be a part of.” Her closing zinger: “Your music may be fresh, but your views on race are garbage.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5264534/amber-ruffin-kanye-west/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5264534/amber-ruffin-kanye-west/"},"headline":"Late Night Comedy Takes on Kanye West's Slavery Comments With a Comeback Rap","datePublished":"2018-05-03T15:22:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:52:36.980Z","description":"\"Your music may be fresh, but your views on race are garbage.\"","url":"https://time.com/5264534/amber-ruffin-kanye-west/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Kanye West","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73b5a0e722c48927/69892f754ee2625ee4311b1a/screen-shot-2018-05-03-at-11-12-26-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73b5a0e722c48927/69892f754ee2625ee4311b1a/screen-shot-2018-05-03-at-11-12-26-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"amber-ruffin-late-night","caption":"","creditText":"YouTube","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5264534/amber-ruffin-kanye-west/","name":"Late Night Comedy Takes on Kanye West's Slavery Comments With a Comeback Rap"}}]}] ```