LeBron James' show 'The Shop' will not air episode with Kanye West: 'Hate speech should never have an audience'

Kanye West has been in the news recently, and it hasn't really been good.

Musical genius aside, West's run for the presidency in 2020 was apparently a sign that he was going to delve into both politics and culture wars full-fledged. He had been somewhat quiet since that ill-fated run at the White House, but that changed over the past few weeks as he has trust himself back into the national conversation. One would say for better or worse, but it seems to all be for the worst.

West wore a "White Lives Matter" T-shirt at Paris Fashion Week and made antisemitic posts on social media that were taken down by Instagram and Twitter.

Even after those instances, though, the show "The Shop" from Uninterrupted, which can be seen on HBO and YouTube and is run by LeBron James and his business partner Maverick Carter, decided to have Kanye on the show as a pre-taped guest.

That show didn't go well, apparently, because it's now being reported that West's episode won't air, and Carter himself put out the statement.

“Yesterday we taped an episode of 'The Shop' with Kanye West. Kanye was booked weeks ago and, after talking to Kanye directly the day before we taped, I believed he was capable of a respectful discussion and he was ready to address all his recent comments. Unfortunately, he used' The Shop' to reiterate more hate speech and extremely dangerous stereotypes," Carter told Andscape.

“We have made the decision not to air this episode or any of Kanye’s remarks. While The Shop embraces thoughtful discourse and differing opinions, we have zero tolerance for hate speech of any kind and will never allow our channels to be used to promote hate.

“I take full responsibility for believing Kanye wanted a different conversation and apologize to our guests and crew. Hate speech should never have an audience.”

In passing along the comments from Carter, Andscape also reported that West "doubled down on his recent antisemitic remarks during the episode."

LeBron James, who is preparing for his 20th NBA season and fifth with the Los Angeles Lakers, is the co-founder of the parent company to Uninterrupted, SpringHill Company, but he was not present at the taping.