The Best Highlights From Kanye West’s New ‘T Magazine’ Interview
Kanye West has been making multiple waves in the headlines all year, from leaving Nike for adidas to becoming BFFs with Taylor Swift. Now, a recent interview for The New York Times’ T Magazine is revealing even more gems from the polarizing rapper.
Yeezy leaves no stone unturned, as he discusses everything from putting himself in debt to fund his fashion line to the artwork for his upcoming single.
West’s forthcoming album, So Help Me God, does not have a set release date as of now. But with the current TIDAL takeover, who knows what will happen! So far, we’ve gotten a taste of the project via “All Day” and “Wolves” featuring Sia and Vic Mensa.
View some of the best, most Yeeziest moments from T Magazine below!
On the next single’s artwork, which takes a shot at designer Hedi Slimane: In 2012, when the designer Hedi Slimane reportedly said West could only attend his first runway show for Saint Laurent and no others at Paris Fashion Week — a fairly standard request — West took offense and said so, openly and repeatedly; the two still don’t speak. “I’m not angry anymore,” West said, “but I had to get my anger out.” A few moments later, he pulls up a potential cover image for a forthcoming single: It’s a photo of the Saint Laurent store in Chicago after it was robbed last year, its front window shattered, the logo fractured.
On his fame: “I’m not a celebrity, I’m an activist. The fact that when I see truth it’s really hard for me to sit back and just allow it to happen in front of me on my clock makes me, a lot of times, a bad celebrity.”
On that viral Ralph Lauren photo: “Do you know what he said when he did that? ‘This is my son.’ And I was thinking, ‘I knew it! I knew Ralph was my daddy!’”
On putting himself in debt for his first women’s fashion line: “I gained because I had the privilege to be educated. I had enough of a value to be able to go into debt, and that was a blessing. Some people don’t even have the opportunity to be able to go into debt.”
On bringing high quality to the masses: “Before the Internet, music was really expensive. People would use a rack of CDs to show class, to show they had made it. Right now, people use clothes to telegraph that. I want to destroy that. The very thing that supposedly made me special — the jacket that no one could get, the direct communications with the designers — I want to give that to the world.”
On toning down his much-criticized ego: “I have this table in my new house. They put this table in without asking. It was some weird nouveau riche marble table, and I hated it. But it was literally so heavy that it took a crane to move it. We would try to set up different things around it, but it never really worked. I realized that table was my ego. No matter what you put around it, under it, no matter who photographed it, the douchebaggery would always come through.”
Click here to read Kanye West’s T Magazine interview in full.
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