The Quentin Tarantino film Kanye West took credit for: “They got the idea from me”
Kanye West, who is no stranger to blowing his own trumpet, once claimed that he came up with the idea for one of Quentin Tarantino’s biggest movies. However, the legendary director has disputed his comments.
Django Unchained was released in 2012, starring the likes of Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kerry Washington. The movie was nominated for five Oscars and won in the Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor categories at the 85th Academy Awards.
During his appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored in 2022, West took credit for coming up with the idea for the movie, alleging Tarantino took his ideas for the ‘Gold Digger’ music video and turned it into a feature film.
“Tarantino can write a movie about slavery where – actually, him and Jamie [Foxx], they got the idea from me because the idea for Django, I pitched to Jamie Foxx and Quentin Tarantino as the video for ‘Gold Digger’,” he said. “And then Tarantino turned it into a film.”
Sitting down on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Tarantino was asked about Kanye’s comments and claimed he had nothing to do with his idea for the movie. “There’s not truth to the idea that Kanye West came up with the idea of Django and then he told that to me, and I go, ‘Hey, wow, that’s a really great idea. Let me take Kanye’s idea and make Django Unchained out of it.’” he said. “That didn’t happen. I’d had the idea for Django for a while before I ever met Kanye.”
Instead, Tarantino explained how they had a conversation about a movie version of his debut album The College Dropout. Then, from there, he explained how Ye had a comedic idea to star as a slave in the music video for ‘Gold Digger‘.
“He wanted to do a giant movie version of The College Dropout, the way he did the album,” he said. “So he wanted to get big directors to do different tracks from the album and then release it as this giant movie – not video, nothing as crass as videos, it was movies, movies based on each of the different tracks.”
“We used it as an excuse to meet each other and so we met each other we had a really good time. And he did have an idea for a video. I do think it was for the ‘Gold Digger’ video, that he would be a slave. And the whole thing was the slave narrative where he’s a slave and he’s singing ‘Gold Digger’. And it was very funny. It was a really, really funny idea.”
He added, “It was meant to be ironic. And it’s like a huge musical. I mean, like no expenses spared with him in this slave rag outfit, doing everything. And then that was also part of the pushback on it. But I wish he had done it. It sounded really cool. Anyway, that’s what he’s referring to.”
‘Gold Digger’ notably appeared on 2005’s Late Registration, with The College Dropout released the year prior. Django Unchained star Foxx, who has collaborated with Kanye on several occasions, was featured on the hit single, which topped the Hot 100.