Key Takeaways
- Kanye West took over the unveiling of a Chicago street sign honoring his late mother, Donda West, cutting off the person conducting the ceremony so he could remove the cover himself.
- Peter Rosenberg called the move "weirdo behavior" on the Ebro, Laura, Rosenberg Show, while his co-hosts initially argued that Ye simply wanted to unveil the tribute to his own mother.
- Rosenberg stressed that Donda deserved the honor; she chaired Chicago State University’s English Department during a nearly three-decade career before her death in 2007.
Peter Rosenberg was visibly heated while calling out Kanye West over his behavior at a Chicago ceremony honouring his late mother, Donda West.
During Thursday’s (September 24) episode of the Ebro, Laura, Rosenberg Show podcast, Rosenberg focused on West cutting off the person conducting the street-renaming ceremony on Tuesday (September 22) so he could pull the cover off the new sign himself.
Rosenberg argued that the moment was another example of West needing to take control of the room. "Even in a moment like that, you're just effing weird, bro," he said around the 3:41 mark in the video below.
An off-camera producer responded with: "Oh, come on," which seemed to upset the media personality.
"Did you say, 'Oh, come on'? That's not an 'Oh, come on'? Someone else is doing the ceremony and you stop them like, 'No, I'm doing it! That's not weirdo behavior?" Rosenberg answered.
The producer replied: "It's his mom, bro." Ebro suggested, "Maybe he was booked do it," while Laura Stylez said: "I think he just wanted to be the one to pull the cover."
Rosenberg, becoming increasingly heated, then said: "I'm done playing the games. You guys play weirdo shit. Shut the fuck up and watch the ceremony and clap like everybody else!"
Stylez reacted with surprise as Rosenberg continued arguing that West's behavior was strange. Rosenberg acknowledged that Ebro was enjoying getting him worked up, but pressed him to agree that the moment was still inappropriate. Ebro ultimately agreed.
Ebro later explained that without Ye's history of interrupting people, the gesture might have seemed harmless.
"In a normal scenario, if he didn't have other big moments where he interrupted people, it would be cute like, 'Yo, let me do that, bro. That's my mom!’ Or whatever. Or, 'I thought that's why you guys invited me.'"
Rosenberg made it clear that his criticism was not directed at the tribute itself, saying: "His mom, by the way, is incredibly deserving [of] that. I love that she's getting honored. She should be. She was a great lady."
The awkward moment came on Tuesday at 78th Street and South Shore Drive in South Shore, where 7th Ward Alderman Greg Mitchell was on the mic. Ye handled the reveal without speaking to the crowd.
Donda West spent nearly three decades at Chicago State University, where she chaired the English Department. She died at 58 in November 2007.
