In the recent In Whose Name? documentary, Saturday Night Live (SNL) fame comedian, Michael Che can be seen confronting Kanye West back in 2018, accusing him of 'selling out' the SNL cast.
The heated exchange took place backstage at SNL, after Kanye West spoke in details about his support of President Donald Trump following his performance.
Michael Che and Colin Jost are co-anchors on the popular "Weekend Update" segment on SNL. Michael Che's backstage confrontation with rapper Kanye West has now come to light with the release of the documentary, In Whose Name?.
During Kanye west's long speech about Donald Trump and other topics, he said, "you can't be controlled by monolithic thoughts. You can't always have, every time you have a Black subject matter like [Bill] Cosby that you have to have a Black comedian talking about him".
In another controversial moment, Kanye West talked about how he was asked not to wear his 'Make America Great Again' backstage. He said, "They bullied me backstage. They bullied me, and then they say I'm in a sunken place. You wanna see the sunken place? I'mma listen to y'all now. I'm gonna put my Superman cape on".
The documentary finally showed Michael Che's confrontation backstage who approached West and said, "You good with me? For real? That was f---ed up".
Michael Che felt like Kanye West's speech was a bolt from the blue which indirectly criticised him. However, Kanye denied that he made any implications about Michael when he talked about the Bill Cosby joke.
Michael Che retorted saying, "I'm the Black comedian that made a joke about Cosby...Why'd you do that to me?"
Kanye West did not address his question and said that he loved him which Michael Che reciprocated. However, Michael still needed answers and pushed further. "I work here. Like, come on man. We treat everyone that come in like family and you gonna sell us out. Like we look up to you, we love you. What you got against us?", he said.
Kanye West then clarified that he had some grudges against SNL "in general". Michael Che felt that while such feelings were normal, he should not have said what he said when no one had the chance to refute.
The documentary did not have any further footage from the exchange as others tried to break the tension and asked the camera to not record further.
Nico Ballesteros documented over 3,000 hours of Kanye West's 'world of extremes' for 6 years, in the documentary, In Whose Name? It released on September 19, 2025.
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