Kanye West doc director ‘turned camera off’ during presidential campaign because he felt uncomfortable

‘Anybody else would have kept the camera rolling and probably got a million dollars for what I shot’

One of the directors behind Netflix’s new Kanye West documentary Jeen-Yuhs has revealed he turned the camera off during the rapper’s failed presidential campaign.

West, who legally changed his name to Ye last year, ran for US president as an independent candidate in 2020, though only qualified for ballot access in 12 states.

The artist conceded defeat on 4 November 2020, having received over 60,000 votes in the states for which he was balloted.

Speaking to BBC Radio 1Xtra about the new documentary, director Clarence “Coodie” Simmons said that he decided to stop filming during the campaign as it “felt uncomfortable”.

Simmons said that Ye had never asked him to stop filming, and claimed that he could have received a million-dollar payment for the footage he refused to capture.

“The time I got back with him when he was running for president, I decided to turn the camera off,” he said. “I could have kept the camera rolling, anybody else would have kept the camera rolling and gone to TMZ straight after and probably got a million dollars for what I shot, but that’s my brother.

“I put the camera down so I could pay attention to what was going on and make sure everything was going to run smoothly. And I never shot that side of Kanye. It just felt uncomfortable.”

‘Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy’ was co-directed by Clarence ‘Coodie’ Simmons and Chike Ozah (Netflix)

You can listen to the full interview on BBC Sounds here.

West has recently faced criticism for a string of social media posts targeting his estranged wife Kim Kardashian and her new partner, the comedian Pete Davidson.