Quentin Tarantino Denies Claims Ye Came Up With 'Django Unchained': 'That Didn't Happen'

Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino denied rapper, designer and rumored 2024 presidential candidate Ye's claim he came up with the idea for Tarantino's 2012 hit film Django Unchained.

Ye has made numerous claims and accusations as of late while the self-proclaimed genius finds himself mired in scandal facing accusations of anti-Blackness, misogynoir and antisemitism as multiple businesses sever ties with him.

Ye claimed Tarantino stole the plot of Django—the story of a Black slave who trains under a German bounty hunter with the ultimate goal of reuniting with his long-lost wife—from the music video for his song "Gold Digger."

Ye said he pitched the idea to Tarantino and actor Jamie Foxx—who ultimately appeared in the "Gold Digger" video—before Tarantino decided to turn the concept into a movie starring Foxx.

But Tarantino told talk show host Jimmy Kimmel Ye is mistaken because the writer and director thought about making Django for some time before Ye pitched his idea.

You can hear what Tarantino said in the video below.

Tarantino said:

“There’s no truth to the idea that Kanye West came up with the idea of 'Django.' He did have an idea for a video and I do think it was for the ‘Gold Digger’ video."

"He would be a slave and the whole thing was the slave narrative, where he’s a slave and he’s singing ‘Gold Digger’ and it was very funny."

"It was a very, very funny idea.”

Tarantino added he had the idea for Django Unchained—a highly stylized, heavily revisionist tribute to Spaghetti Westerns, in particular the 1966 Italian film Django by Sergio Corbucci—“for a while, before I even met [Ye].”

He noted Ye at one point wanted to do “a giant movie version” of his debut album The College Dropout and had tried to court "big directors" to make films for each song.

Many were not surprised by Tarantino's remarks and attributed Ye's claims to his increasingly erratic behavior.

Ye received backlash after White Lives Matter shirts—including ones worn by Ye and Candace Owens—were unveiled during his YZY Paris Fashion Week show. As a result, Ye went on several misogynoir and antisemitic rants and was accused of anti-Blackness by community activists.

Instagram locked Ye out of his account after he posted an antisemitic conspiracy theory in screenshots of text messages with Sean "Diddy" Combs.

In response, Ye returned to Twitter after a long hiatus to accuse Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg of personally locking him out of his account after Instagram announced it locked him out for posts that violated its policies. Ye also tweeted he'd go "death con 3 ON JEWISH PEOPLE," prompting media attention and further accusations of antisemitism.

He returned to Instagram last week shortly after he was escorted out of the Sketchers headquarters to announce that he'd lost $2 billion in one day.

Earlier, Adidas announced it was ending its $1.5 billion deal with Ye. Additionally, TJX Companies, which owns department stores and TJ Maxx, and Gap said they would no longer sell Ye's apparel.

The losses were significant enough that Forbes reported that Ye had been knocked off Forbes' billionaires list.