Does anyone give better soundbites than Kanye West?
Following on from declaring “rap the new rock n roll” and himself the biggest of the genre, the second and third parts of Mr. Yeezus’ hour-long video interview with BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe have turned up online, offering even more of the hip hop artist’s unique brand of profound braggadocio.
The first part saw West rattling off on a variety of topics circulating around his most knowledgeable topic: Kanye West, discussing everything from Star Wars and The Truman Show, to designing water bottles, the influence of Michael Jackson, and his latest album being about needing to “fuck shit up.”
By the end of the first video, the music star was getting particularly heated, and the second edition sees him once again spitting off about his creative ambitions, how others have tried to restrict his career, and – yes – several more controversial quotes, including echoing his Yeezus cut’s mission statement: ‘I Am A God’.
Once again, for your convenience, here’s some more of the most quotable moments from Kanye West’s chat.
First You Get The Basketball Jerseys, Then You Get The Power
“What people don’t realise is, I wanna make uniforms for my high school basketball team through brand Yeezy, I wanna make that one step and then make another step, and then eventually do uniforms for the entire city. Then I want those uniforms to be hot and make money… that I eventually want to be the anchor and the force behind a $10 billion company and after I made that billion dollar step then I can go in and say ‘hey, I’ve got an opinion on this’.”
He Doesn’t Like Gold Digger, But He Aint’ Messing With No Broke, Broke
“Then I get paid for ‘Gold Digger’ – which I never really liked that song, but I always knew I would get paid…” (Then later) “I put on that pink polo and said ‘broke, broke’ and broke through that TV, and now you got an interview with me.”
Others Hold Him Back
“I told Ari [Emanuel, renowned talent agent], I’m an inventor, and he goes on tell me about ‘the way it works’… ‘You are a celebrity. So basically what’s going to happen is there’s product here, and this is where you end up, right here. If you can communicate this product, you can make money off the product’.”
Lady Gaga Doesn’t Know What She’s On About
“‘[Still imitating Ari Emanual] Because look at Gaga, she’s the creative director of Polaroid.’ I like some of the Gaga songs. [But] what the fuck does she know about cameras!?”
To Dope Or Not To Dope
“For me, first of all, dopeness is what I like the most. Dopeness. People who want to make things as dope as possible. And, by default, make money from it. The thing that I like the least are people who only want to make money from things whether they’re dope or not. And especially make money at making things as least dope as possible.”
Race Politics Are Alive And (Selling) Well
“We got this new thing called classcism, it’s racism’s cousin, this is what we do to hold people back… and we got this other thing that’s also been working for a long time where you don’t have to be racist anymore: it’s called self-hate. It’s like real estate of racism.”
Kanye West Is A God, Says Kanye West
“When someone comes up and says something like, ‘I Am A God,’ (on the Yeezus track of the same name) everybody says ‘Who does he think he is?’ I just told you who I thought I was. A god. I just told you. That’s who I think I am. Would it have been better if I had a song that said ‘I am a nigger’, ‘I am a gangster’ or if I had a song that said ‘I am a pimp.’ All those colours and patinas fit better on a person like me, right? But to say you are a god, especially when you got shipped over to the country that you’re in, and your last name is a slave owner’s. How could you say that? How could you have that mentality?”
Others Really Hold Him Back
“I make music, I can do it, but I shouldn’t be limited to only one place of creativity, and it’s literally only one or two reasons why I haven’t been able to break that down… You guys don’t understand that I did the Yeezies [West’s Nike-branded sneaker] and they eBay’d for $90,000. And people wanted them bad as whatever, right? But I didn’t get a call from Nike the next day. As a creative, for you to have done something to the level of the Yeezies and not be able to create more, and you can not create that on your own with no support, with no backing.”
Fashion Is Like Wreck-It Ralph
“It’s in my code. Have y’all ever seen Wreck-It Ralph? You remember how that girl in there… the glitch [spoiler alert: Vanellope Von Schweetz]. You’re tellin’ me people don’t look at Kanye West like the glitch. Right now. And she was on the side of the video game, the whole time! It’s in my code.”
Hot Fashion Tip: Don’t Wear Sandals
(Zane Lowe says “I’m from New Zealand and flip-flops are far more standard.”) “Yeah exactly, but not for black dudes though. No flip-flops for black dudes, I don’t care where you at. No flip-flops for black dudes. Wear some hot-ass Jordans, on a beach.”
Not A Megalomaniac
“People think a lot of my motivation is very megalomaniac and self-oriented. To the contrary, completely. I just wanna help… my father was a Black Panther, my father was a journalist, a paparazzi, a photo-journalist… like seven years ago he lived in a homeless shelter, not because he was homeless but he wanted to help the ex-drug addicts, he wanted to get that close. There is no award show, there is no amount of billboards that can define me or make me pass what my parents made me, and that’s exactly who I am.”
Yeezus Could Be Daft Punk, If It Wasn’t So Angry
“There is no ‘Get Lucky’ on [Yeezus] and perhaps it’s because [‘New Slaves’] just wasn’t the song and maybe it could be that, but it sounds like there’s hits on the album to me. But it sound likes there’s hits that’s distracted by the statements, ‘fuck you and your corporation, ya’ll niggers can’t control me on the first single’.”
Apple Stemmed The Napster Tide
“[Deceased Apple CEO] Steve Jobs made the internet usable. This is the information age. We barely scratched the surface, there’s things that are moving. The entire music industry was hit by a fucking glacier, by the internet. And [Napster boss] Sean Parker just stood up in there and Steve was like ‘No, no wait a second, give ’em a little time or there won’t be any music if you just give it away like that.”
On The Internet
“People are going to look at this interview and say, ‘I don’t like Kanye. Look, he looks mad. I don’t like his teeth.’ They’re gonna say, ‘Why doesn’t he just focus on music? I liked him as music.’ They’re gonna say ‘Hey, I want the old Kanye, blah blah blah.’ But one thing they will do? They will play this interview in five years. They will play this interview in ten years, and say, ‘He called that, he called that, he called that…'”
The Last 36 Years Is Just The Beginning
“I always felt like I could do anything. That’s the main thing that people are controlled by, their perception of themselves… If you’re taught you can’t do anything, you won’t do anything. I was taught I could do everything and I’m Kanye West at age 36, so just watch the next 10 years.”
P.S. Kanye’s Making History
“People are going to look at this interview and say, ‘I don’t like Kanye. Look, he looks mad. I don’t like his teeth.’ They’re gonna say, ‘Why doesn’t he just focus on music? I liked him as music.’ They’re gonna say ‘Hey, I want the old Kanye, blah blah blah.’ But one thing they will do? They will play this [BBC Radio 1] interview in five years. they will play this interview in 10 years and say: ‘He called that. He called that. He called that’…”
Watch the second and third part of the BBC interview with Kanye West below:
