Apr 16, 2020 few highlights: "The one thing that seemed at odds with— Oh, I got one for you. Yeah? “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” is a victim statement. This white person didn’t do something for us. That is stemmed in victim mentality. Every day I have to look in the mirror like I’m Robert De Niro and tell myself, “You are not a slave.” As outspoken as I am, and the position that I am in, I need to tell myself. A lot of the reaction to you wearing the hat was “How could the guy who gave us the gift of ‘George Bush doesn’t care about black people’ now do this?” Black people are controlled by emotions through the media. The media puts musicians, artists, celebrities, actors in a position to be the face of the race, that really don’t have any power and really are just working for white people. When it’s said like that, it’s kind of obvious, right? We emotionally connect to someone of our color on TV and feel that this person is speaking for us. So let me say this: I am the founder of a $4 billion organization, one of the most Google-searched brands on the planet, and I will not be told who I’m gonna vote on because of my color." ... "I’ve also noticed that you have studio setups in pretty much all of your workspaces. With everything you’re doing, when do you decide it’s time to record? I just rap into my iPhone. Best microphone on the planet. Thirty, forty percent of The College Dropout was recorded on a [Roland] VS-1680. Twenty percent of Jesus Is King was recorded on an iPhone. Your actual vocals on the album are just voice memos? Yes. I first started doing that on Yeezus. Like Closed on Sunday, you’re my Chick-fil-A—that part is off the phone." ... "Because when you first heard Wu-Tang, it sounded completely different. It sounded more aggressive. It even sounded—I think artists are so concerned with perfectionism. All these people say Dark Fantasy was this album that was so good, and then people didn’t like 808s, they didn’t like Yeezus. Dark Fantasy, I just made it to that level because people were saying my career was going to be over. I always felt like “Power” was my weakest first single that I ever had, because I felt like it was bowing to the expectations. How so? Just like, “Here’s the ultimate Kanye West song!” Versus “Love Lockdown”? “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”? “Diamonds”? “Follow God”? I always do the songs that people never heard before. But you had actually heard “Power” before. You heard “Crack Music.” You heard “Amazing.” You heard that song before! It’s just a mix of things. But when I showed you a photo of the anorak that we’re developing today, it’s like, Oh, okay—" ... "It makes me think: Life is a song that’s already been written, that takes your entire life to hear. I believe that. Something I’ve really been on in the past few weeks is the way we use memories to express ourselves. We’re taught that the color white is white when we’re super young. So now if I point at this tablecloth and say “white,” you agree with me. You’re agreeing with something that we both have been programmed to understand in the past so we can communicate in the future. How does that inform how you create? Are you looking to break some of the programmed ideas that we are all supposed to agree upon? The greatest freedom is to challenge the vernacular. Or add something to the vernacular. I saw [Alyx designer and former DONDA member] Matt Williams in the hotel lobby at the Mercer a couple weeks ago. Right when I saw him, I started communicating in, like, beep sounds. Can you give me an example? You know the beginning of the Bobby Digital song? Like that. Did he beep back? Good question. [laughs] We hugged and started using memories to attempt to communicate the future."
Apr 16, 2020 Haven't read the piece yet but LOL my man really had someone make him the Dark Knight Batmobile
Apr 16, 2020 ".. his taste for a mix of streetwear, Ralph Lauren, and Louis Vuitton changed how you and I dress—and eventually reorganized the whole fashion industry." WTF? How is that even remotely true... yikes
Apr 16, 2020 A lot of this is soooooo boring (except if you care about his fashion line or w/e lol) except when you get to the second and third interviews there are a few interesting tidbits in here. I didn't know the extent of kanye's alcoholism—gray goose screwdrivers every morning, d---—which makes sense how he fell into opiate addiction after getting surgery. Because Kanye always talked about drugs but it never seemed like a "thing" for him like Future or Kodak someone, just an occasional partaking throughout tour life. I'm sure a lot of that was self-medication for bipolar disorder. I just rap into my iPhone. Best microphone on the planet. Thirty, forty percent of The College Dropout was recorded on a [Roland] VS-1680. Twenty percent of Jesus Is King was recorded on an iPhone. so that's why half of JIK sounds like it was recorded through an empty paper towel tube. All these people say Dark Fantasy was this album that was so good, and then people didn’t like 808s, they didn’t like Yeezus. Dark Fantasy, I just made it to that level because people were saying my career was going to be over. I always felt like “Power” was my weakest first single that I ever had, because I felt like it was bowing to the expectations. I always thought he was bullshitting when he said MBDTF was his least favorite album. But it makes sense that he was trying to do something new and innovative with 808s and with Yeezus and it must have been frustrating to have those projects be so polarizing and not all that well received (esp by fans) when they dropped. Ohhhhh, he'll give us what we neeeeed It may not be what we waaaaant
Apr 16, 2020 Yea I don’t know why he always s----s on Dark Fantasy. It’s like his only mindset these days is to go against the grain just for the sake of going against the grain. MBDTF is hailed by everybody as being a perfect album and one of the best of all time across all genre, so of course Kanye has to come in and s--- on it just for the sake of being “different.” It’s the same with the Trump s---, he’s just going against the popular opinion just be different. He’s always been this way, except back in the day he would go against popular opinions because it was actually the right thing to do, now it’s just some bs way of him trying to be rebellious. “oh real estate is much better now than when Obama was in the office, so that’s why I like Trump.” Yea right, spare me. One of his homies probably told him that talking point and now he uses it as justification. You can’t tell me Kanye, a supposed billionaire, could care less about the price of real estate like a couple hundred thousand dollars even matters to him. He’s never been the type to let money stand in the way of his ideas anyway, so even if he didn’t have the money to buy whatever land he wanted for a project, he’d still find a way to make it work. Just look at how much he went into debt before yeezy took off
Apr 16, 2020 hating kanye now is entirely warranted, but imagine being someone who still doesn't like 808s or yeezus in 2020 lmfao
Apr 16, 2020 hey, I never said you had to like them MORE than MBDTF! I think MBDTF is better than 808s and is neck and neck with Yeezus for his best album. Was more just a response to people still saying they're complete s--- 10+ years later.
Apr 16, 2020 lol I know I was agreeing. Was just saying I don't like MBDTF as much as the majority. I like those albums much more
Apr 16, 2020 ohhhhh my bad I thought you were making fun of them by making beep boop robot beat noises lol
Apr 16, 2020 lol nah making fun of kanye How does that inform how you create? Are you looking to break some of the programmed ideas that we are all supposed to agree upon? The greatest freedom is to challenge the vernacular. Or add something to the vernacular. I saw [Alyx designer and former DONDA member] Matt Williams in the hotel lobby at the Mercer a couple weeks ago. Right when I saw him, I started communicating in, like, beep sounds.
Apr 16, 2020 Imagine being this journalist laying on top of these bat mobiles conducting an interview edit: also it’s f---ing strange this video ended up on my YouTube recommendations on my iPhone YouTube app, but I read the original article on my computer at work
Apr 17, 2020 yeah absolute sh--, me and the lads were rockin polos back in 2010ish around the time they were in every aussie rap video we were smashing at the time. maybe also partially cause early 00s had g unit rocking them but in XXXXL size for some reason
