Encore: My eerie week inside Kanye West's Hollywood mansion
6/16/202650 min
Gonzo journalist and writer John Safran on why he decided to squat in a Hollywood mansion belonging to Kanye West.John Safran has made a career out of getting into places he probably shouldn't be, from breaking into Disney Land, to infiltrating fascist strongholds in Australia.
A couple of years ago, one of his journalistic expeditions saw him squatting in an abandoned Hollywood mansion belonging Kanye West.
John had seen a clip of the hip hop start denying the Holocaust, defending Adolf Hitler, and claiming that Black people cannot be anti-Semitic because they are actually Jewish.
His week writing and snooping in this strange house, with no running water and a vulture in the roof, made John go increasingly loopy as he tried to understand what pushed this critically acclaimed artist from celebrity eccentric to seriously 'out there'.
This episode of Conversations was first broadcast in 2024
It explores Kanye West, Judaism, antisemitism, Hollywood, hip hop, Christianity, Nazism, racism, hip hop, squatting, the Donda Academy, journalism, Adidas, money, fame, documentary, writing, the Holocaust, mental health, celebrity, mansions
Further information
Squat is published by Penguin.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsRichard Fidler· Host0:00
ABC Listen. Podcasts, radio, news, music, and more. When I told my friends and my wife that John Safran was coming back on Conversations, they all said to me various versions of, "What's he done now?" Well, I'll tell you what he's done now. John Safran, Australian gonzo author and documentary maker, has spent a week or so in what he calls a writer's residency in a mansion in Los Angeles. And not just any mansion. It's a mansion that belongs to Kanye West. Kanye West, one of the biggest selling, most critically acclaimed hip hop artists of all time. He's also a major figure in street fashion. He's become so wealthy and powerful, he's got people who can turn his slightest whims into reality, sort of. At one point, Kanye West was worth something close to $2 billion. But then he made the transition from celebrity eccentric to seriously out there. John Safran became interested in Kanye West, who now calls himself Ye, when he saw a clip of him on The Alex Jones Show, wearing a black eyeless balaclava, denying the Holocaust, and speaking in defense of Adolf Hitler as a human being. And Kanye then said that Black people