In November 2013, Kanye West flipped out on reporter Sway Calloway during an on-air interview. In the midst of ranting about his impact and financial woes, Sway suggested Ye continue his Yeezy clothing brand “on his own” instead of seeking support from major corporations. The multiple Grammy-winning artist responded in the viral clip, “How Sway? You ain’t got the answers, man.”
Now, almost a decade later in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the Yeezy CEO revealed that Sway “actually” had the answers.
While grinning, he said, “You know what? I will go ahead and say Sway had the answer. I know people gonna be like, ‘No!’ “
Of course, social media users had a lot to say about West addressing the viral moment and admitting he was wrong. One person tweeted, “@RealSway had the answer the whole time but @kanyewest just had to learn the ins/outs, find the right team, grow as a person/artist/entrepreneur etc.. just Life University. All things fina work together in the end for him tho. Get to it Ye!”
A second person agreed that Sway or Ye had the knowledgeable “answers back then” to produce an independent clothing line. Dozens more agreed in “hindsight” Sway was right, while others called him “hard-headed” for not looking at the bigger picture.
One individual wrote, “Sway said to ‘take a step back & release it yourself’ instead of trying to get these big brands to sell your product. He had the answer, Kanye just didn’t want to do it that way, he wanted to be recognized and accepted by the fashion industry. Ye was hard headed.”
Another said, “Both Ye and Sway was right back then. Ye was right in turns of having a certain structure and learning the business overall. Sway is right 2day in hindsight cause now that Ye has the knowledge and infrastructure, you can empower yourself rather than thru companies.”
“For him to humbly admit Sway was right means that Sway should be in some sort of hall of fame.”
A handful requested that the “Donda” artist have another sit-down with Sway to apologize humbly. One said, “Naw, he gotta say it with the same energy he was on 10 years ago! Matter fact he need to pull up on Sway and do another interview.”
West is currently at war with Adidas over his Yeezy brand after a decade of working together. He’s verbally attacked executives on social media and accused Adidas of blatantly copying his popular Yeezy design. In June, the 45-year-old pointed out the similarities between his Yeezy slides and Adidas’ Adilette 22 slides and called out Adidas CEO Kasper Rørsted.
“These shoes represent disrespect that people in power have to the talent,” Ye wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post. “This shoe is a fake Yeezy made by Adidas themselves. I’m not talking to DC about this either. Kasper come talk to me. Happy Monday.”