NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman wants to bring his friend Kanye West to North Korea, home to another one of his friends, Kim Jong-Un. As of last month, Rodman has made five trips to the repressive state; according to his agent, Kim and Rodman get along because they “both love sports and music.” It’s gotten Rodman into some hot water but that hasn’t stopped him from returning.
Well, apparently he’s planning to return in September, and he’s planning to invite Kanye West to come along. In an interview with Us Weekly, Rodman discussed his admiration for West, leading to this unlikely statement:
“[H]opefully one day we’ll get together and collaborate on certain things. Guess what, I’ll take Kanye West to North Korea with me. Matter of fact, I’m going to invite him next time I go to North Korea. If the door’s open in September, I will invite Kanye West with me to go to North Korea with me… If he wants to make an album about that he’ll be there for like six to seven days, and he’ll see what’s going on. Now, go make a song about this. So here you go.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Rodman mentioned that his friendship with West began after Rodman’s agent spotted a “shoutout” from the artist on social media. Rodman has since followed suit, suggesting that the pair should make a song about “leaders of love.”
During the summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un in June, Rodman was also in Singapore, thanks to a trip sponsored by the cryptocurrency Potcoin. Elsewhere in the interview with Us, he spoke at length about his relationship with Kim and the reasons behind his visits:
“When I started this whole venture about going to North Korea, it wasn’t about me, about trying to be more famous. No, I just wanted to have a good time with the family, that was it… People start turning on me, then all of a sudden now when they had the meeting, all of a sudden now people say, ‘Oh it took you five years for our President to prove the fact that I was right. I said ‘OK, whatever.’ If anything happens with this whole thing, with North Korea and America, it’s amazing how the fact that I didn’t do it, I just brought the guys together.”
He also suggested that his company, AnyTickets.com, is willing to set people up with experiences in North Korea, which indicates that his interest in the state also extends to his business concerns: “Put it like this, if the opportunity comes, Anytickets.com will do one thing, if the price is right, if you want to go North Korea with me, we can do those places with Dennis Rodman any time you want.”
Of course, both Rodman and West have been outspoken supporters of Donald Trump. Rodman also did two turns on Celebrity Apprentice. In 2013, he was “fired” from the show for misspelling Melania Trump’s name.
Human Rights Watch calls North Korea one of the world’s most repressive states.
