Kanye West PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP via Getty Images Harvey Levin, the founder and longtime face of TMZ, reportedly cut Kanye West‘s praise of Adolf Hitler and all discussion of Nazism from the notorious 2018 interview in which the rapper claimed slavery “was a choice” for Black Americans.
The claim comes from a GQ article published Wednesday, in which reporter Joshua Hunt spoke with more than two dozen current and former TMZ staffers, including Evan Rosenblum, who spent 15 years at the outlet. His source further corroborates what former TMZ employee Van Lathan Jr. said in 2022 regarding West’s visit to the news outlet’s office
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“Earlier in that interview, Kanye went off about Hitler and the Nazis and started talking about his love for Hitler and how Hitler was misunderstood,” Rosenblum told GQ. “This was years before his other antisemitic controversies, but after the show finished taping, Harvey came up and told me he’d had all that stuff cut out. It was crazy. I mean, ‘Kanye West goes to bat for Hitler’ does not hit the cutting-room floor at any serious newsroom.”
During the interview at TMZ‘s offices, West grew increasingly agitated, pacing the newsroom while discussing opioid use and liposuction.
West went on to fire off several posts on X about his admiration of Hitler and released a song called “Heil Hitler” in 2025. In 2026 he took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal apologizing for his antisemitic comments and attributing his hateful rants to a brain injury he suffered in a car accident more than 20 years ago.
GQ suggests Levin’s decision to cut West’s Hitler comments may have been aimed at protecting TMZ‘s access to the superstar.
The article details other instances of similar editorial calls, including TMZ‘s catch-and-kill of a video showing Justin Bieber using a racial slur — for which Levin reportedly paid $80,000 before shelving it. One staffer said Levin described the move as “the ethical thing to do”; the footage surfaced only after it was reported elsewhere and only after TMZ had landed an interview with Bieber for his 18th birthday. GQ also notes that TMZ continues to publish UFC exclusives to this day, even after Levin’s outlet obtained footage of UFC CEO Dana White in a physical altercation with his wife around the same time Levin sat down with White for an interview.
TMZ has not yet responded to The Hollywood Reporter‘s request for comment on the GQ piece.
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