Will.i.am slams Kanye West’s presidential bid as ‘a dangerous thing’
Will.i.am has criticised Kanye West’s announcement that he will run for US president.
West, 43, revealed earlier this month that he plans to challenge Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the election later this year.
It is thought that West, who has previously spoken of his support for Trump, is yet to file any of the official paperwork required for a presidential run.
Discussing the rapper’s announcement, The Voice star Will.i.am, 45, told The Mirror: “It’s a dangerous thing to be playing with.
Will.i.am said West should not be "playing" with politics if he is "not serious" (Getty Images)
“If you’re not serious, you don’t play with that, especially now.”
The musician, real name William Adams, went on to suggest that West could more effectively “change people’s lives for the better” by doing charity work and “community service.”
“Like what the f***, seriously, I don’t even know what community service you do,” he said, adding: “There’s so many ways to help our communities other than politics and you don’t have to run for office to change people’s lives for the better.”
Referring to his I.am.angel charitable foundation, he continued: “For the past 11 years I went back to the ghetto where I’m from and started a school. I started with 65 kids – now I have 720 kids and growing.
“Our kids have gone off to colleges they probably never thought, or anyone thought, they’d go to – like Dartmouth, Brown, Stanford, UCLA – studying things you probably never thought they would study, like bioscience, engineering, autonomy, robotics and computer science.
"So you don’t have to be a politician to protect the youth. Politics, nah. I’d rather do what I do, and do as much as I can.”
West’s presidential bid sparked ridicule online from other celebrities including Paris Hilton and comedian Tiffany Haddish, who suggested that they too would be joining the race to the White House.
Actress Octavia Spencer described West’s announcement as “foolishness” in a tweet, adding: “It’s obvious that some people live in a bubble. It’s about time to burst it.”
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