Quentin Tarantino resists Kanye West’s Claiming he stole the idea for his film Django Unchained from West. “Behind the idea that Kanye West had “Django [Unchained]’ made up, there isn’t a bit of truth in it. […] I had the idea for [den Film] a while before I met Kanye,” the director replied on talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!. In fact, Tarantino writes in his upcoming book Cinema Speculation (November 2022) that he got the idea for Django Unchained from a former friend of his mother’s when Quentin was a teenager.
Quentin Tarantino on Kanye West claiming that he came up with the idea for Django Unchained… pic.twitter.com/5gA4z523zW
— Jimmy Kimmel Live (@JimmyKimmelLive) October 28, 2022
Host Jimmy Kimmel asked Quentin Tarantino how much truth there was to the rapper’s claim. Tarantino admitted that Kanye West pitched him an idea for a music video in which the rapper would sing “Gold Digger” dressed as a slave. It was supposed to be part of a film for his debut album THE COLLEGE DROPOUT.
“He wanted to do a giant film version of THE COLLEGE DROPOUT […] so he wanted to get big directors to direct different songs from the album and then release it as this huge movie. […] They were movies, movies based on each of the different tracks.” Tarantino continued, “We used it as an excuse to get together and so we got together and had a really good time. And he also had an idea for a clip. I think it was for the video ‘Gold Digger’ in which he was supposed to be a slave. It was a really, really fun idea.”
However, Kanye West’s idea had nothing to do with the script of “Django Unchained”. The eventual music video for Kanye West and future Django Unchained star Jamie Foxx’s “Gold Digger” was directed by Harold “Hype” Williams. In addition to the two artists, you can see various models in skimpy clothing. Nothing remains of West’s original idea.