Kanye West’s ‘W’ Interview Is Maybe More Beautifully Insane Than His ‘NYT’ Profile
A few months ago, Kanye West granted a W Magazine reporter access to his Paris loft in the middle of his Yeezus sessions to conduct an in-depth interview. The subsequent article, as you probably expected, is wonderful and befuddling and entertaining as hell. That New York Times profile may end up getting all the love (for it broke Ye’s silence and gave us gems like “I am the nucleus”), but this latest feature is as exquisite as a Corbusier lamp (we’re assuming those lamps are exquisite?), and should get its own time in the blog spotlight.
The piece paints Kanye as sort of a Dr. Evil-meets-Jay Gatsby mad genius (for instance, he has “obscure body-art journals from Switzerland” delivered to his door, and eats stir fry off Hermes plates). Everything he did in Paris serves his ultimate goal, which is “to make Kanye West as dope as possible.” Among all the Yeezy bluster we were provided with actual tidbits of notable information — including the fact that Nas and The Weeknd (whom W hilariously refers to as “Canadian rapper The Weeknd”) stopped by the loft…were they working on something?! — but with Ye, that’s not the most exciting part.
You know the drill by now: head below for the nine most ridiculous items from this Kanye piece.
1. Kanye is a Seinfeld fan. Over the course of the interview, West favorably compared himself to “Le Corbusier, the Beatles, Marlon Brando, Tiger Woods, Azzedine Alaïa, Kate Moss and the Soup Nazi, among others.”
2. West’s Graduation-era Universe City might someday be a real place. West’s ultimate ambition “goes way beyond making hit records or developing a discerning eye for console tables. He’s plotting to create operas, stores, films, product packaging, amusement parks, and, possibly, entire cities.” Official language of Universe City: Swaghili.
3. He received a few noise complaints from neighbors. Seinfeld re-runs, pissy neighbors…you and Yeezy aren’t so different after all!
/takes another bite of dinnertime Lucky Charms.
4. He describes Yeezus in the most Yeezus way possible. West said he wanted the record to be like a “one-man gangbang.”
5. The impetus for “I Am A God” was someone telling him what fashion events he could and couldn’t attend. “Yo! Nobody can tell me where I can and can’t go. Man, I’m the No. 1 living and breathing rock star. I am Axl Rose; I am Jim Morrison; I am Jimi Hendrix,” West said. “To even think they could tell me where I could and couldn’t go is just ludicrous. It’s blasphemous—to rock ’n’ roll, and to music.”
6. He admits he’s not book smart or speak-smart, but is still an intellect(ual). “God’s little practical joke on me—as an intellect who doesn’t like to read a lot—is like, I’ll say some superphilosophical shit, but I’ll say it the wrong way[…] I’ll use the wrong word, so it goes from being really special to completely retarded.”
7. He’s creative director of an upcoming Jetsons movie. Honestly we don’t even know what to say about that.
8. His credo is a basically an Eminem lyric. “Now, I just do exactly what I want, whenever I want, how the fuck I want,” West says. “‘Fuck you’ is my message.”
9. Your love is his drug. Just kidding! He says: “My ego is my drug. My drug is, ‘I’m better than all you other motherfuckers. Kiss my ass!’”
Read the full interview over at W‘s site.
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