2015 The Breakfast Club Interview

Envy: Special guest here this morning Charlamagne Tha God: He's Back! Envy: He's back! Kanye West Kanye West: Wassup Envy: I didn't think it was gonna happen, I said I bet Kanye's not gonna come back up here I thought it was a wrap KW: I'm coming back every time CTG: Let me start with some positivity, man. I think "Only One" and "Wolves" is dope records KW: Oh wow thank you! CTG: I think they're really dope tunes KW: Yeah Angela Yee: This is starting way different than the last one! (All laughing) KW: But! But! I don't like "FourFiveSeconds"! And why did you do that at the Grammys? (laughing) CTG: I do like "FourFiveSeconds" though AY: He loved that song CTG: I don't like the auto-tune when you sing but I like "FourFiveSeconds" KW: I don't like auto tune either but I need it CTG: Really? Why? I hear people say that, why? KW: Cause, I could do, I can like bend my voice in other ways, like at the end of Runaway and everything? I like to do that CTG: I got you. And thank you for inviting me to the fashion show as well KW: Yeah CTG: I didn't feel like I belonged there AY: We thought it was a set up, he's gonna walk in (laughing) Envy: We definitely thought it was a set up, we said he's gonna get beat up in there, he's gonna get jumped CTG: I felt like it was only right. You came here, you know what I'm saying? Through all the slander, why wouldn't I come to the fashion show? KW: Yeah Envy: You put him next to Drake which was kind of awkward CTG: They didn't put me next to Drake. I went to stand in the back and Drake happened to be back there AY: Charlamagne was standing by Drake the whole time Envy: Now lets talk about your shoes that just been released, Yeezy Boosts KW: Yeah I heard y'all don't like those AY: No not y'all, I said that I actually have a pair of shoes that look like them and I like them CTG: That's not a good thing when a girl has shoes that look like mens shoes AY: Why? CTG: I like the black colour. The grey colour when I first saw them looked like a paper mache project. But the black ones look tough KW: Yeah we coming with the black ones real soon AY: But that is a big accomplishment for you, you put that out, limited run at first, and they sold out and now people are buying them online for over $1500 Envy: 1500 for them KW: yeah see I don't want them to be limited, that's something that the company did. I wanted as many people to get them as possible. And I don't want the price to be $350, I don't want to play this sneaker culture game and all this where they be reselling them for higher prices and stuff, I just want people to have what I make. There's no limited release to the College Dropout, or a limited release of Graduation. You know and I think in clothing right now there's a real separatism, there's $5000 sweat shirts everybody spending that money trying to show up in the club, and act like they.. You know what I'm saying? We need to spend that money on our families. My point, and what I'm doing in clothing right now is I'm going and taking the talent. I came from the Ralph show and I was talking to Ralph like man, I need your help, cause you know how to make clothes and I think I know what my generation wants. But it's very difficult if you don't have that production and that experience that Ralph has. and it's really difficult to get those price points, you know the Zara and H&M price points if you don't got the factories, if you don't got the boats. You know I talked about this before CTG: So why is it $350? Cause it's hard to.. KW: I have no idea they just priced it that. I think they just, I think their logic was they didn't want it to go from um, the other company and go to Adidas and be like man, why they drop the price? Cause sometimes the public won't always understand the transition. Like Steve Jobs always had the iPad in his head, but he couldn't do it coming from a keyboard and a floppy disk to the iPad, he has to walk people in to this Envy: I thought the whole idea of you going to Adidas was you would have more control, and it was your ish, and you could do everything CTG: Over price points KW: Yeah I do have a lot more, at least I could do something! But any relationship that starts off you ain't gonna have all the control. You know what I'm saying? It's a marriage. Usually the first year of any situation is the toughest, and then when you guys start to communicate, you know it cane be powerful Envy: Now explain this to me. I'm a sneakerhead, I have tonnes of sneakers. I assumed it to be like, I don't like to compare, but the other sneakers you did, like leather, they were more of a sneaker sneaker, like you could ball out in your others sneakers, this one I don't think I could play basketball in KW: You actually could play basketball in this one better. Because first of all its got boosts which is the best technology and I'm not just saying that contractually with Adidias, I'm saying that from someone that goes to the gym, and if I'm wearing that like my Boosts actually I feel better cause I have problems with the back of my achilles from performing so much CTG: I did say fat girls with cankles, it look like they'll be comfortable for them KW: Yeah! I mean people joke that they look sorta like the Uggs, right? But what's really bugged out is I'm actually working on trying to make a sexier Ugg. Cause you see Uggs all the time Envy: They are comfortable KW: And I see, you know, I see stuff for the future. I'm always, I'm such a futurist that I have to slow down and talk in the present. This was a proposition to where I think shoes will go. I think the colour palates, with the red over here and the thirty different colours, the Black History Month version and all that, I think that's gonna be out of there in the future. This is for me, as humbly I would say I am the most influential person in footwear right now CTG: There's no way to humbly say that KW: Well truthfully, I am the most influential person in footwear. [?] Envy: Those are re-releases but when it comes to new sneakers I think he is AY: How hard is it to get that balance between wanting to get something people can afford, but then also wanting to use those materials and make things really special, you know things that make them more for you KW: Yeah those materials is all a game that the factories play too. Silk is in style, silk is more expensive from the factories. You can get everything for a better price, it's all in how you negotiate with the factories. And my end goal, ten years from now will be to have everything at a Zara level, like I think when Steve made it with phones, it wasn't a show of class anymore. You know you had the Vertu phone, the $4000 phone you felt like you was better than somebody CTG: I don't understand this talk at all [?] KW: The phone, I'm talking about the vertu phone CTG: Oh phones! KW: Yeah I'm not clear a speaker, you know I had this car accident and everything and I just and ever since then I've been a mumble mouth. But what I'm saying is, people are trying to put on a jacket to try and act like they are better than you. I think this idea of being better than the next man is the wrong mentality in the first place. We were born in to a broken world that has been separated by race, religion and class CTG: But you confuse me when you say stuff like that cause you do act like you are better than people KW: No CTG: Like the Grammy's is a great example, when you run up there and tell everyone respect the artistry, but it's like you're not respecting the artistry KW: Yeah that. And I deserved it that was completely hypocritical. I'm go ahead and tell y'all like the other day. I went to dinner and I sat down with Taylor Swift, right, and ironically they were playing the Beck album AY: Ironically or you think they did that on purpose? KW: No they did it on purpose so I could finally hear it and I was like man CTG: So you hadn't even heard it when you did the Grammy rant? KW: I was like man, this is like kinda good, I ain't gonna lie (All laughing) CTG: So you hadn't even heard the Beck album when you did the rant? KW: Nah! I hadn't even heard it man, I just (all laughing) AY: Charlamagne you do that all the time, you say somebody is wack without hearing the album CTG: But I admit it! When did I do that? That's not true. I can't even say if Beck didn't deserve it cause I didn't hear it AY: And that was an argument we had cause I was like Kanye might not know, a lot of people hadn't even heard Beck, I'd never heard it, so. People were saying no I'm sure he heard it, he had to have heard it to say that KW: You know what? I bet you the album is really good. I'm gonna listen to the album and maybe it was potentially an album of the year but the Grammy's still have a commercial component to it. They wanna sell commercials, so they have these big superstars sitting in the audience and they're advertising they're performing 'coming up next' that's what they try to do to get those views. You don't have these people sitting here and you know, have them and their hearts beating and stuff like we work too hard for all that, to be losing in a situation where, cause I mean who's winning? We don't get none of that advertising money. Y'all don't play with us. That's what my main point it CTG: Why you think superstars go where they're tolerated, like yourself you go where you're tolerated but not celebrated. You don't come to the Soul Train awards, or the BET Hip Hop awards, you'll hear 'Kanye won' but Kanye is not here to accept this award KW: That's why we need to support the people that support us, and not just particularly a black thing. We always say this is a black show, you know it's gonna be a while. I ain't got the answers on how to change the voting system, I ain't got the answers on how to make it everyone is honoured in the proper way, and sometimes maybe there's two people that should win. Who's to say who should win? But I think it'd be a class thing to. You know it carries more weight if you win a Grammy than if you win a BET award, so we still go CTG: Says who though? KW: Says society. And this is what this is about, this is why I respect this show because this is the voice of society, this is I'd say the voice of the barber shop, this the voice of the streets, and you know the Grammy's are, it's a statement of classicism. Like if you go to my house Imma hit the stunt button for a second. You see my 21 Grammy's laid out that my wife forced me to take out of the bathroom and put in one place CTG: That's why it's interesting to hear you get at the Grammy's cause you could be selfish and say 'well I've got 21, whatever' KW: Yeah I mean I think I deserve more (All laughing) KW: You know it’s all, like I said we was born into a world that’s separated by class, race, and religion. So class is one of the things people want, you want to be first class, but in a plane crash everybody dead. It ain’t no class then, it’s just a whole crash. Some of the things, when I first came out with the idea of DONDA and I was tweeting out all these idea; airplane design, this design, this design. You know you see of course like me and Kim, we can take private but we really wanna be in the airport, we wanna be next to the people. I get inspiration when I see what people are wearing, I get inspiration when I see what people are going through. I see people walking a line slower or getting patted down, you know I gotta tell you this one good story about class. I was going to London where I’m going tonight, and I was in the first class line and it was real crowded. And I looked at the coach line for customs and it was completely empty. We went over to the coach line and got through right away. And everybody that’s sitting there with their Hermes belts and their big hats, they didn’t want to lower they class in order to get through faster when time is the only luxury. It’s a lot of stuff that I’ve been learning over the past couple of years and I’ve used my money and my position and my relationships to learn about class and I think my approach is I think more, Robin Hood now CTG: Its more ghetto. Even though you’re getting up in class its still rachet KW: Yeah I guess. I mean ghetto is fun. I’m from Chicago, my wife got a big ass, we stay ghetto Envy: Did you reach out to Beck after though? Did you reach out to Beck after you heard his album like maybe I slipped up a little bit, maybe I went too far? KW: Yes I got his number and I was supposed to call but I keep forgetting AY: What? You did not forget, you just don’t know what to say CTG: Don’t feel bad because I thought Beck was a beer until you jumped on there AY: Beck was very humble about it though, he agreed. He was like ‘Yeah I mean, Beyonce should’ve won’ it wasn’t like he disagreed with you. But I felt bad for him KW: No I felt good for him because think of all the good stuff that happen to me in the past 7 days, 8 days. The person that won the most is Beck. Because if I hadn’t done that then his album of the year would have never been mentioned. Now its in all the chatter; ‘Kanye West Messes Up Again’ ‘Kanye West Donkey of the Day’. You know I’m already the enemy so you can’t get no worse than the villain AY: It has to be hard to win an award and have all these different people saying you shouldn’t have won. And then you have the Beehive going in and leaving negative nasty comments and how terrible he is CTG: Well its all subjective though KW: Yeah it is all subjective but But you know, he should win an award for what he did. You know, rock album or something like that. But he shouldn’t have won that award in my opinion. But who am I to have an opinon. Ya know? CTG: You’re Kanye West KW: Exactly CTG: If you don’t respect it then it’s not to be respected. But one thing we always ask in the barbershops is why is Kanye always caping for Beyonce? I love Beyonce, I’m a Pinkett-Smith-Winfrey-Knowles-Carter, but it seems like you’re always coming to her aid. And nobody, Beyonce don’t need no caping she’s Beyonce KW: I know it’s really ironic that it’s always Beyonce for some reason. Why is It Beyonce? Why don’t I go off on whoever going off on my wife on twitter? I think Beyonce is a great representation of an artist working hard and trying their best and getting the results from it. So say Beyonce’s previous album wasn’t as well received as this new album, and she got low like how I got low on my new album, and delivered something that everybody loved. In America we have to respect greatness when we see it and we can’t smack it in the face at the cost of some votes splitting, at the cost of blowing someone who can sell some t-shirts. If you see something that’s great, you got to respect it. I remember I was trying to get on the basketball team in 8th grade, I hit every free throw, hit every layup, and I looked on the list and I wasn’t on the list. And the coach just gave me the Kanye shrug [Laughter] KW: You know that’s like the best thing cause you get to leave school... AY: Get all the chicks KW: Yeah. We had a small gym, where like you’d run into a broadway stage like if you hit a layup and stuff CTG: So hurt people hurt people. He probably said ‘Kanye I’mma let you finish but you’re not going to make this basketball team KW: Now my point is, you not gonna have somebody hit all the shots and you not give them that credit. And I think a lot of times its exactly what you say, Beyonce don’t need no help. People look at Beyonce cause she's rich, respect to Hov she’s a beautiful woman, she’s talented. And so they figure she’s got everything and so you don’t even need nothing else. But I think she deserves the proper accolades because she’s an inspiration CTG: She got 20 Grammys! 21..20? AY: Not album of the year CM: I thought she did win that one went there for album of the year KW: I don’t think she’s ever one an album of the year Grammy. And this is funny because Taylor was talking to me about this. She was saying that when she was the victim she won every award and now that she's powerful and the biggest selling artist, now she's not winning awards anymore, cause they're like "what do you need?" It's once again, it's that moment where the rich people, our line is getting clogged up because it's a practical joke that everybody in the airport is playing on the rich people, as they should, because as rich people, our focus shouldn't be on how we get a new Phantom, how we get a bigger house. Our focus should be on how do we help the middle to the lower class to have a better life. And I think that we get distracted with luxury, so-called luxury goods, so-called luxury cars, like... And I embrace this, any time a rich person gets the piss taken out of them it's cool, don't do it to me all the time and stuff but... CTG: But you know that's always what we felt about you because you used to speak up like when you said George Bush don't care about black people, you were speaking up for the have-nots. But now it seems like you were just fighting for the civil rights of rich people lately. (Laughter) KW: I think it's the rights of everyone. And another thing that I used to get really caught up on was with race. You know, with race it's like, okay we know it's racist people, we know that a lot of white men over the age of 60 are racist, we embrace that. We know that a lot of people that are in power don't really... they're like Donald Sterling. We understand that. We know that, but the world is moving. 10 years from now, 20 years from now, every person of color or female or any minority that comes into power will eventually shift it. You got the ozone layer, you got all this stuff you see 100 years from now the entire world might be black. Just to even survive on the earth, period Envy: Now you mentioned you stood up for Beyoncé, people asked, you stood up for Beyoncé, you stand up for her maybe more than you stand up for your own wife. Recently, people been going at your wife crazy, from the Paper magazine cover, they say, "Why would she do that? She has money, is it just for fame? Is it just for Instagram? Is it just for attention? You know even Amber Rose came on the program a couple of days ago and said your wife was fake. How do you reply to all of these people and what do you say to everybody? Even with us, when we seen her on the cover it was kind of like, yo Kim is filthy, you know, she has a child, she has a family, why would she do that cover? KW: Which question... let's do the cover first. One of the things in breaking class is respected art can break class. So one of the things that shut up a lot of people is the fact that Jean-Paul Goude took the photograph, that used to shoot Grace Jones. And Grace Jones' figure, physique was as new and different as Kim's physique was. And our position of power, we're not gonna accept the physique that was given to us. You know, that was told to us that was the proper way to look. My daughter has a chance of being shaped like my wife, so until she, between this age and 'til the age she's like that, I'm gonna be fighting for that shape to be considered the highest of class. Or not the highest of class, at least equal to what someone looks at, like a skinny model for. My first introduction, one of my first introductions to beauty was the Helmut Newton book, this really big book, and every woman in there was naked. This is a straight photographer, he did Playboy and he'll do St. Laurent ads and the highest level taste, and I was really drawn to the beauty of the way their photographs were set up and to the fact that I was attracted to the women also. I liked the two things at once. I like the physical attraction and I like the way the shot was set up. I think that with my wife, it had been a lot of times earlier in her career where she didn't have the access to that level of photographer, of course he's passed away now. So now that she has the access to a Jean-Paul Goude, a Steven Klein, a [?], I can name all the really high level, Jackie Nicholson, all the high level photographers, now, you know it's important for her to stand, I think, for her to stand up in all of her glory and all her power. Now her power is in her body, is in her nudity. Her power is in her mind, her power is in her family, but body is one of the powers CTG: What happens when she gets older, though? KW: Well, she's got, she gon' always have that body but she's gonna have mind, family, and she's gonna create a legacy CTG: You know, you name all those brands and stuff but the hood don't know that so the hood, the hood is like, "Kanye, just tell your wife she don't gotta get naked no more." KW: But, she can get naked if she wants to, it's not illegal to get naked and, you know, and then think about this, like if Adam had never ate the apple, we'd all be naked. So... CTG: You hit us with that last time, I still have not understood that one in two years. I've been tryna figure that one out for two years AY: But listen, do you feel compelled to reach out to Amber Rose, being that that's your ex-girlfriend and saying, "Listen, calm it down, leave my wife alone and just chill out."? KW: She's just soaking in the moment, nobody feel compelled to do nothing. If Kim had dated me when I first wanted to be with her, it wouldn't be an Amber Rose. You know what I'm saying? Like... (laughter) Envy: So it's your fault, Kim, it's your fault. He holla'd at you before CTG: But Amber said Kim was sending you naked pictures while y'all was together though KW: I wish. I would have gladly, happily have liked to. Cause by the way it's very hard for a woman to want to be with someone that's with Amber Rose so she wasn't sending nothing, you know what I'm saying? Like I had to take thirty showers before I got with Kim, you know? (Laughter) I'm sorry, please.. wait, don't ask me no more cause I just wanna be respectful, man CTG: Listen, I saw you say, I was watching something on TV and they said you were saying that fashion lines didn't want to deal with you cause you were married to a reality show star. Just on a business level, cause personally we can tell you're happy, just on a business level do you feel the Kardashian brand has hurt Kanye West's brand? KW: No, it's helped. Cause it just showed, like, my ability to bring Mos Def into the studio with Jay Z. My ability to bridge the gap. To bridge, you know, somebody's sitting over at this lunch table, they're the fashion world, they're all cool and stuff and somebody's sitting over at this lunch table, they're a celebrity and they have a perception about that. And you know, I showed people the power of what happens when you work together. And now, you know, Kim can sell a dress faster than any magazine cover AY: And you got her on the cover of Vogue which is something we thought was never gonna happen, the way that Anna Wintour felt and how she had expressed that in the past Envy: What did she say? She said something today or earlier today? AY: Oh about bringing North West to the fashion show. That was alleged though, they said allegedly she said that's not the proper place for a child. You know? KW: Yeah I can't speak on alleged comments CTG: Does it bother you when you see the news and they're like, "North West was crying at a fashion show", I mean she's a baby, that's what babies do AY: And she's at her daddy's fashion show, which makes sense, I mean I think you would want your daughter front row at your fashion show KW: Yeah, yeah, I mean think about it, no one can tell me where to have my child or not, you know? Envy: I got four of them and they cry. You can't tell them when to cry or when not to cry, they gon' cry CTG: Dame Dash at the BET Awards, BET Honors. Why'd you let him present you with that award? KW: Because he presented me to the world. You know, I wouldn't have a record deal if it wasn't for Dame Dash Envy: How was that first conversation? Cause at one time he hated you, well I'm not gonna say he hated you but he was very upset AY: I don't think he hated you, he just felt you weren't loyal to him KW: And I wasn't, and this was an extremely visionary move on my part to move with, to roll with Jay Z Envy: It was a smart move CTG: Did you tell Dame that? If he's the one that believed in you then why does Hov get the credit and the "Big Brother" records? KW: I mean, I mention Dame a lot in raps, but you know, the story is not done. You know, sometimes it's been moments where like I was wildin' out and Jay was like, "Ye you got to sit this down right now, sit these couple plays out" and you know, it was the moment when Roc-a-fella split. It made more sense for me career-wise to roll with Jay even though Dame had supported me. And I wonder, I say, where would we be, you know, if I had rolled with Dame? Would we have been, would I have been more successful? Would I have been less successful? I can't say, but at that time, you know, I came to Roc-a-fella because Jay Z was my idol. And it would have been very hard for me, you know, at that young state where I was to separate from my idol. You know, and that's the decision I made and then do I say there was some disloyalty or not? Yeah, I own up to that. Is it anything that me and Dame could do together now to make money? I think so. Will I do it? CTG: He's got a film company, right? KW: Yeah we're gonna work on films and actually I really like the films that he's doing. He had all types of ideas and Dame is like the original person who understood culture and really was in it in every situation and would go, you know, Beans had a problem, he would go pick Beans up. He'd have us on a jet with them, talking to us direct, talking to me and GLC directly. He was talking to me about GLC with the film company, like "Yo we gotta put out GLC's album", you know just kind of reminding me, similar to what you was saying last time we was talking about having the real niggas, you definitely got to say Dame's a real nigga. So when he came over to the crib and I just saw him, I missed him, man I missed the good, I missed the bad, I missed all of that because all of that is what created College Dropout. That tension, all of that is what created Late Registration. And we creating something new now in the fashion world and in the film world Envy: We realized the other day that you still have a love for music and the reason I say that is I don't know who we were talking to (Tyga), we was talking to Tyga, we was talking to Ty Dolla $ign, and I heard a remix with so many different people, and it's like Kanye's in the studio working with everybody CTG: You've always got the new guys that may not even be next in the studio with you so you keep your ear to the streets KW: You know I just gotta, I have to work. You know I think a lot of times people get rich, people get comfortable, people fall in love and everything. You know, I went to this Drake concert in Germany. I flew to the concert to go see it. And he got this one line where he say like, something about people be falling in love with famous girls and dadada and they don't have be working as much. And he rapped it, and then when he rapped it he knew I was in the concert so he like looked down and stuff CTG: "Too in love with fashion and women" or something like that KW: Yeah something like that but you know, he was right. You know what I'm saying? I gotta get on my job and that's why I got on the end of that "Blessed." Hello, I'm back! We back in the studio, it's times that I gotta go pick my daughter up and take her to dance class in the morning and I try to create a regiment, but at least if I go to the studio like 6 hours a day. And it's funny cause when I first sat with Tyga, like me and Virgil seen Tyga at the Balmain store and we knew he was fresh. You know, certain people, they have a certain talent with clothing: a Tyga, A$AP Rocky. Certain people got a certain talent with the bars and shit: Young Thug, Big Sean. You know, and I sat in the studio with, it was me, Thug, Sean, Travi$, Tyga, and I was just saying how we gotta bring our resources together. We have to see how we can help each other to make each other way fresher, share information, build, have cyphers like back in the Wu-Tang era, like people used to have cyphers. So last night when I working on "All Day" at Q-Tip's house, it was like me, Vic Mensa, Q-Tip, and we was just building on culture, culture, culture and instead of trying to write bars, we built on that and then I started writing the bars. Then they started coming and we started bouncing ideas off each other so with me, I'm only a humble servant. If you have power you have to empower. You have the power to give power away, what I said on the song, "Power." "No one man should have all that power" is a true statement. No man has the power, the power is in the people. The people give you the power. The people chose me to be the people's champ. Soon as I go up and talk about, "I, I, me, me" you lose that. And then you got next generations, you got, no matter how I hard I try, Drake is gonna speak to a generation in a way that I might not have been at that same basketball game he was at. That same high school game, watched that same TV show, went to that same club. Tyga's gonna speak to a certain generation, Big Sean's gonna speak to a certain generation, and it's important for a revolution, like Common said on that song he just won for, it's the youth and the OGs have to come together. You need the energy of the youth and the knowledge of the OGs CTG: That's in the Bible, old men for council, young men for war KW: That's why I sit with Puff, I sit with Dame, I sit with Jay, I sit with Farrakhan. I talk to the OGs and try to figure out how we can help each other CTG: Now with Tyga, mentioning Tyga, you're executive producing his album. Do you feel like his relationship with your sister-in-law is inappropriate? KW: I think that, that's a good question right there. I think he got in early, I think he was smart. (Laughter) CTG: I told him he's redshirting her, and I said that's a great redshirt prospect, and let's be clear, Russell was 35 when he met Kimora, she was 17. But I'm from the south too so I don't know KW: They're closer in age than a lot of relationships that I know, you know? CTG: He's 25, she'll be 18 in August KW: Yeah I knew Tyga was smart CTG: Tyga came up here though and said they were just friends. I mean that's what he's supposed to say but... KW: Yeah I can't speak on that, I can't speak on nobody's relationship CTG: Thank you Ye, we appreciate that a whole lot, Ye Envy: Your album, what kind of album are we getting? What should we expect? KW: Bars. Songs. You know, cook out music that just feels good, you know, like my last album was a protest to music. I was like, "I'ma take my ball and go home." If y'all ain't gonna let me play the way I wanna play or do clothes or do this, start shootin' the ball real slow, might be at the free throw for a long time just... That was my whole album. The album don't even got no music. I just let y'all have a little music on there on "Bound" but that was it. But this album's just embracing the music, embracing joy, and being of service to the people. I just hope that people like it and enjoy it, you know? That's it CTG: You mentioned Minister Farrakhan, I also saw you say when you was backstage at the Grammy's you said you didn't want to speak to much cause you didn't want to jeopardize your clothing line, but a lot of people don't like to stand next to the Minister cause they feel like he jeopardizes their business. Why are you not afraid to show your relation with the Minister? KW: You know, it's interesting cause I actually asked for the Minister to give me my BET Visionary award and he felt like it wasn't the right time, and maybe for reasons just like that. Right now I'm working on a documentary with him about him and about his music. He's a classically trained violinist. And he's also one of the most humane people and now he's got that stamp in the same way how my wife was stamped with the sextape, the Minister was stamped with (bigotry) yeah. And it's important that while he's still alive he has to see the people appreciate his message, cause you ever hear him talk, it's about humanity. It's about one race. Soon as you hear his name, I see peoples' faces change, they have a perception. It's a lot that I can learn from him, perhaps the Minister mentioned Beck won too many times, or something like that and it's things I can learn in my path of how to always keep my communication as open as possible cause right now it's right at that tip where it's like... yeah we gotta have him cause he's gonna bring some excitement to the Grammy's and all that. But we're working on this documentary and it's amazing, it shows that he had a white violin instructor, but then he talked about because he was black he couldn't get the white instructor and there was no black instructors that could instruct him well enough. And he talks about how he was asked to stop doing music, he had to choose between the Nation and music and then how the honorable Elijah Muhammad asked him to come in one day to play the violin and he embraced his passion of music and it's a beautiful story about a beautiful soul that's very misunderstood and one of almost powerful messengers and it's very important that we protect our messengers, very important that we support them CTG: Yeah the Minister's very sharp. You think it's kind of confusing when he'll say negative things about Jewish people but then say we should learn from them? That's kind of a confusing method KW: Yeah we definitely should learn from them. We should learn from us, I'm tired of the "us" and "them", us meaning we should learn from human beings. The first thing I think we're going to do to stop racism is stop focusing on racism. And I understand that it's somebody going to work right now that has a white boss that's talking down to them because they're black. I'm not trying to deny that, but I'm saying we understand that people is different races, it's like light skinned against dark skinned. It just slows down the conversation, I don't know if it's 8, excuse me for this statement CTG: It makes a great joke and stuff KW: yeah, yeah it does CTG: Especially on the light skinned Envy: Shut up (Laughter) KW: Also every... people are human beings so everything this man says, when I talk to him pretty much everything he says is correct, but everything a person says is not gonna be correct. Every move a person makes is not gonna be well timed but sometimes those mistimed moves can inspire the next generation like Pac used to say. He said, "I might not change the world but I'ma inspire somebody that changes the world." When I think about, okay I wanna do surround vision, I wanna do my movie theatre, I wanna do my clothing line, I wanna do this, my goal is, man maybe there's a 4 year old that's gonna see that and cure cancer one day. Maybe we could keep... if your job is inspiration, you have to keep pushing that at all costs cause you never know who's gonna be inspired by that. And a lot of the reasons why I'm successful now is the people who work with me now grew up on The College Dropout. You know, before when I was going in years ago, everyone they listened to rock, they liked Bruce Springsteen, like they don't even know about The College Dropout. So now they know what we brought to the table, and they wanna be a part of this, this movement in a way CTG: Last year when it was so much racial tension and you know the police brutality and stuff, like it's almost like people wanted you to say something. Were you purposely falling back from being vocal about the Mike Brown situation and things like that? KW: Yeah my dad would email me and say stay out of it. My dad is like a thousand times smarter than me, and a thousand times more social than me. He like literally lived at a homeless shelter. He emailed me and told me stay out of it, that's my only parent, you know, so I have to listen to him, sometimes Envy: Why, why'd he say that? KW: I think he was just trying to be protective of his son. You know, I can't run in front of every bullet. I just can't run in front of every single bullet CTG: Is it in the music with this album, maybe? KW: Oh yeah, we definitely... yeah, you know I'm always gonna talk about what's going on, like Marvin Gaye would say. It's definitely gonna be in there AY: How much of this album is done? KW: Uh I think 80 percent, I'm tryna get it finished. I'm tryna get it to the people as soon as possible Envy: How are you gonna release it? Is it gonna be like a... AY: Suprise? CTG: You can't have a release date, you can't do it, it's played out. It's last year's fashion, you can't do it KW: 100% release dates is played out, so the surprise is gonna be a surprise. There goes the surprise Envy: No surprise CTG: Now one thing the hood all wants to know, where did that soft whisper Michael Jackson voice come from? It debuted on the Kris Jenner show a couple years ago Envy: When did the hood wanna know that? AY: I don't think the hood watches that show CTG: You've used it in more than that setting. Where did that come from? Is that like a... I don't know, you're in a shell? I dunno KW: Man don't, nobody wants, the worst thing... the thing that America doesn't want... America and the world, they antagonize black men. Black men aren't intimate in their own country and they're not in power and all this so you constantly get poked at. But the thing that they hate the most is the angry black man, even though they can cause you to be angry. They hate that, and you know, if you could just understand how to not get angry, in a boxing match, you know if you get angry, you lost. This is a match of life, a match of culture, and if I'm angry all the time I've already lost. So I just need to stop being angry. And people say, yeah what does he have to be angry about? I got enough to be happy about to focus on that, to not be angry about stuff, and plus it helps you work better, when I'm calm Envy: Now the hood wants to know, this is a barbershop question, does Beyoncé and Kim have a problem? Cause it seems like people pin them against each other CTG: Question mark, boom. Does Beyoncé and Kim have a problem? KW: Nah they love each other. They respect each other. When Beyoncé's working on her album she has pictures of Kim on the wall because Kim represents powerful women. Kim be playing, what's the song, "I know you care", what's that song? CTG: "7/11" KW: Yeah, "7/11", playing that video, playing it for our daughter CTG: Kim's not the only picture on the wall, right? KW: No it's some other (laughter) CTG: I was like "that's weird" KW: They definitely respect each other but it's all... maybe there's a LeBron James - Kobe element to it but I ain't say that... (laughter) CTG: But they're not even in the same lane, like Kim don't sing and she's not entertaining Envy: In the bad mommy lane AY: The MILF lane, is that what you're tryna say? Envy: I wasn't gonna say that... but they're bad, beautiful mommy lane AY: When it comes to raising North West, does it concern you? Are you like, okay, obviously she's gonna be spoiled because we're her parents, but does it concern you that you wanna make sure she's got some type of street sense or anything like that? Do you even think about that? KW: Yeah, my friends, we call them her uncles. Her uncles definitely gonna put her on and definitely. It's this toy, I wish I knew, what's the name of the brand of the toy, Gabe? What's the name of the store we went to? Gabe: Sweet William KW: Sweet William, they got these toys that my daughter got. Vanessa Beecroft that did the fashion show, she bought my daughter 3 wolves. Cause I would see toys that people would see and giver and I'd be like, these toys is weak. She gotta have better toys than this. And sure enough, when she got these wolves from this toy store, she was going crazy, this the happiest I've ever seen her right. So of course, me, I'm gonna go and buy every single toy there. And I was just having a conversation with my wife yesterday like, we can't give her all these toys though. Can't just walk in and give her all the toys at once. She's like, "We'll just give them all for her birthday." We can't give her, she can't have everything for her birthday. We're gonna have to piece this out. So I am very conscientious about the idea of someone being too spoiled cause I think I've been spoiled in the past AY: Is that where the song, "Wolves" came from? Those wolves? KW: I'm always thinking about wolves for some reason, that's always been on my mind CTG: Let's go back to Dame for a second KW: I'm just gon' go ahead and give y'all a soundbyte that y'all want, and I'm just gon' go ahead and say it, where the "Wolves" song came from. I'm just gon' go ahead and say it, cause maybe this will promote it happening, so I'ma go ahead and put it out in the real world. The "Wolves" song came from a conversation that me and Drake had where we was gonna do an album together, and the album was called Wolves CTG: Jay would've been pissed off about that. Cause when Jay came here I asked him if he would ever do another album with an artist, I said Nas specifically and he said, "No because me and Ye already started that." KW: Yeah, so and that's what happened. Me and Jay started talking about Watch the Throne and Drake went and did all the records with Wayne and the tour and we never did it but I just went out and put it in the, I put it out in the world CTG: Did you ask Drake? KW: Y'all don't like it then y'all can send it right back CTG: So you asked Drake to do an album? KW: Yeah I asked him and we talked about it and he said yeah we was gon' do it and actually he was sending beats back and forth. You know, I got this one record with Young Thug that I think we're gonna put on Rihanna's album. I know I'm giving a lot of information away today CTG: That's what you're here for Ye Envy: We appreciate it, thank you AY: We're excited CTG: Let's talk about you and Dame, does that effect you and Jay's relationship now? KW: Nobody's relationship effects any relationship. Everybody need to just have a good relationship. If anything, we all helped each other at a certain point and we all see each other at a certain point CTG: Do you and Jay still have a good relationship? Cause you said that was your idol but you work hard so your idols become your rivals KW: I wouldn't be sitting here today right now if it wasn't for Jay. Jay helped me, period. In every single way that you can think. Whether it was like, holding me down when I'm in New York, I'm the dude in the pink Polo and the bad attitude. And I'm still here. Jay Z AY: So is this Drake and Kanye album gonna happen? KW: I don't know, it might happen cause I threw it out there CTG: Don't do it, man KW: He'd probably be mad that I mentioned it on y'all show since he dislikes y'all so much Envy: He hates him, the big black bully over there, he hates him CTG: So is it true that one time you were in a restaurant and when you had the pink, back in the pink Polo days, some dudes in New York were gon' rob you? Envy: Chelsea Diner, 14th Street CTG: And Beanie came through with the pistol and held you down? KW: Yeah that's true CTG: Do you feel like you may owe Beanie something for that? KW: I'm not gonna put out some... Let me see CTG: Ye got media training. This is a new Ye, he thinks about things AY: He doesn't want to say something that could be misconstrued CTG: This is a new Ye! Envy: Beans might still be on them papers, let me think about how I'ma say this one KW: Okay I know this gon' sound like a somewhat politically correct answer like one of these politician type answers but I owe every hip-hop artist in a way. And I don't mean for you to come to Houston Street and stand in front of my apartment and ask for beats and a verse or something like that. But I owe hip-hop. You know, just like, saying like, Ben Horowitz is the only VC out in San Fran that believes in rap. You know, he gave Nas a piece of Rap Genius and all that. You know, he used to be in a rap group. But, you know we all owe hip-hop. And I believe that I do have the ability, I believe that I'ma be the head of the first trillion dollar company. And 100% when I get to that point, no rapper would ever have to worry about anything. My plan is to be coming one by one, Big Daddy Kane, here come his crib, everybody's crib CTG: Hip-hop reparations? KW: Yeah exactly, like the Forrest Gump moment after he got an apple and came to everybody. I owe every hip-hop artist because I wouldn't have made it this far without all of them. Look at my daughter's name, that's hip-hop. Her name's Nori! CTG: So you did name your daughter after N.O.R.E.? KW: There's an element of that in there CTG: When N.O.R.E. heard "Only One", N.O.R.E. was tweeting, nah I think he's talking about his daughter. Like N.O.R.E. thought for a moment... he did! N.O.R.E. tweeted that! KW: "Only One" has nothing to do with Noreaga CTG: I didn't think so KW: It don't have nothing to do with Noreaga whatsoever, but everything else in my life does CTG: Let's talk about some of your artists for a second, like you got a close relationship with Drake, where at one point Pusha T and Drake had a little issue. And Pusha was hurt because you came out at OVO Fest KW: Yeah, we got over it. (Laughter) CTG: Kanye, new Kanye, I'm telling you! Envy: Teyana Taylor, what's going on with her? KW: She put out an amazing album CTG: She's your artist, like she's very talented but it seems like you don't support her, like you don't stand by her like you should maybe KW: You know what, I don't support her enough. I need to do more. I need to rap on some remixes. I need to go shoot some videos. A lot of times it just, you know, when you're focusing on clothing, you're focused on your family, your focus is on all these different things, you know. It's hard to put all the focus, but yeah I do need to put some more focus on her. I haven't put enough focus into her CTG: You are a true gentleman. Two weeks ago you were bumrushing the stage, calling out Beck, far from humble, and now you're humble as can be right now Envy: It seems like love for the music, like you brought out Fetty Wap when he was performing at his show, who's a Jersey artist who's pretty new, and it's telling me that you're back to that element of music again, and that's what people are excited about KW: Yeah and I was able to get... You know what's so funny is right after I did the fashion show I went to go shoot the "Blessings" video with Drake and Sean and I was so happy. I was so happy to be able to go do that. And I used to be resentful of having to do music. But because I was able to shit, now I can take a piss, you know it's like somebody tells you do one you one... CTG: I usually piss first but I feel what you're saying KW: So you know I'm just happy to just keep creating and just inspire people through joy and accomplishment. And like, with the Adidas thing, they gave me a little bit of oxygen. I couldn't breathe, y'all was looking at a person suffocating. At least I got some ideas out. Maybe that's 10%, 5% of what I really wanna do, like I wanna be supported by Disney in the same way how Adidas supported me I want Disney Imagineering to support my ideas. In the same energy that fashion week had and the same front row and all that Bob Iger, I'm telling you, I'ma bring that, I know, you know, right now our brands might not mix but I'm a family man. Thank you for Frozen, that's like a second nanny AY: You've been reluctant though to call yourself a designer - at what point will you say, "I am a designer." Do you feel like there is gonna be a point or you're just a creator? KW: I don't even want to give myself any form of a title anymore. I'm not calling myself a genius, I'm not calling myself a visionary. The only thing I can say I am is a servant. I wanna serve, and if I can get a group of amazing designers together to create something to be able to serve the public, then that's my job. I'm just a humble servant CTG: How do we know you're telling us the truth and you're not just being politically correct cause of your corporate connects? KW: Well you know I'm never politically correct. I just speak from my heart of exactly where I'm at at that time Envy: Now recently you said when you first got with Kim you lost a lot of friends. Why was that and who? Who were your friends that you lost? KW: You know, when I said that in the interview, I said so-called friends AY: Yeah those were just fashion people that you were getting to know? KW: Yeah getting to know. It's all this, "Oh should we let him sit at the table, should we not let him sit at the table?" but there were some people in fashion that did stand by us. There's Carine Roitfeld, there's Riccardo Tisci, even Anna Wintour, they were a part of the anti-KimYe movement. They were standing on the front line when there was an anti-KimYe movement, and now they're here, every meeting, any meeting, any dinner they have, they'll be like, "Man, see, I told y'all", like Riccardo dressed her, Carine put her on a magazine, Anna put her on a magazine. So that statement was a little bit out of context because it wasn't everybody, but there was a lot of people, and so be it, they was wrong and we was right AY: Do you hold grudges or are you cool to work with people even after that? CTG: You just know they're fake, you know how to deal with them KW: Yeah I don't hold no, yeah I've never held a grudge anyway CTG: You can see he's back here AY: They said after you left the station you were really flustered when you went to go see Sway and a lot of people were saying, "Y'all messed up his whole day after the interview with The Breakfast Club." KW: That was beautiful, man, at least that happened. At least the "How Sway!?", I know you was mad you ain't get that part CTG: I'd like the "You ain't got the answers, Charlamagne" Envy: That was a good one though, a good soundbyte KW: You got me suped up, you charged me up for that joint but you know what, it's like he really didn't have the answers, you know, that was incorrect. That was incorrect, what he was saying. I could have said it in a calmer way but he was misinformed CTG: The only thing I was saying last time was those fashion people don't love you, so it's like, why ask them for help? You're Kanye, and as you can see, you're doing pretty okay for yourself KW: Well I needed that help because still now I got like... one of my head designers worked at Margiela for a while. One of... the girl who worked on the shoes worked at Celine. I've been pulling that talent from a place that was only for the $4000 jacket lines to a place that we're gonna be delivering shoes at $200, $100, we might get some shoes down to $60. I mean, we about to flip this whole thing on its head, it's a new idea of apparel. And they've got information, and I had to ask them, I had to be humble, I had to beg to go to dinners, and I had to explain to them, "why should we work with you, Ye, how we know you're not just another celebrity that's gonna wear a red leather jacket and you're gonna diss us in public?" It's been a long journey and now we gained some ground and now I can give some dope shit to the people. But these people are knowledgeable, man, they went to the Yale of fashion AY: These are the experts and you're trying to learn from them to get better in the fashion world KW: Yeah I hate when people be talking about, "I just designed a restaurant", you be like, "Yeah it look like you designed this restaurant." CTG: Did you get backlash from E when you told Terrence J and Khloe take the E logos off. The Kardashians own a percentage of this KW: That was turnt, I'm really happy I did that, man. That was like, really ignorant CTG: Did E give backlash, like, "Kris control your son" or something like that? KW: Yeah because they was happy cause they got more ratings and by the way, my opinion from someone that's knowledgeable, you know, what's offensive to me is overbranding, all that, that's too much. That's not futuristic, that's in the now and in the past. They gotta be forward, man. We gotta promote forward ideas cause beauty is important. If beauty wasn't important, my wife wouldn't be so famous CTG: She don't get insulted when you say that? KW: What? CTG: You said at the afterparty that if it wasn't for beauty, the Kardashians wouldn't be famous. If I said that it could come off as insulting KW: But they're beautiful, you know how many people wanna be that beautiful? CTG: But they don't have anything else? Brains? KW: Obviously they connect to some business sense because they're all successful, family and all multimillionaires. One thing I think about with me is look how long it's taking me to turn any of my friends to a multimillionaire. Kim did it like that. She did it out the gate, she was like, " We gon' take Khloe, we gon' take Kourtney, we gon' take Kourtney's boyfriend, we gon' take the kids, we gon' take this and we all gon' be millionaires like that." Reality is like rap. It's so futuristic, it's the new... my wife is a visionary at the end of the day. SNL wants to make skits and be like, "What did you do, Kim?" I don't know nobody else that is as successful at what she's doing as her CTG: I only got a couple more questions. Was "Only One" therapeutic for you? Like did it bring you to tears in the studio, maybe? KW: Yeah, yeah, 100% and it brought my wife to tears. Anybody I play it for. And people ask me why did I go "Only One" over "All Day." "Only One" made me feel like me. It made me feel like this was the song I had to play back in the studio if Cam'Ron and Jim Jones and whoever played 30 Dipset records, what am I gonna play to be the pink Polo? What am I gonna play that's gonna stand out? What point do I have? That was my problem, my issue I had once I got... which I love Cruel Summer, I think it's amazing, but I felt like I started sort of blending in with the pack in a way, with a record like "Clique", which was a great song, we still perform it, but it's important for me to innovate. Even with Drake, I think he'll tell you, it's important to have a Yeezus album, it's important to have whatever this next thing is because you need vibes from all directions. You need innovators. My job in life is to innovate. I think that "Only One" is an innovative record, I think "FourFive" is an innovative record, I think "Wolves" is a less innovative but it's the third proposition this year off the album. "Wolves" sounds like like 808s a bit, it sounds like signature Kanye post-808s, Drake whirl record. That's a run-on, you got a proper run-on so you can say you understand what I'm talking about CTG: The record sounds so personal and this may sound crazy but my grandmother who I loved dearly, she was my second mom, she passed away and I had a dream about her and it was like she was talking to me in my dreams. I wonder if you had like a vision of your mother speaking to you maybe, that caused that record KW: Yeah that's exactly what it is. I didn't realize I said, "Hello my only one." It's literally like those movies you see where it's like someone's talking to you. I murmured that and I realized after the fact I said "only one." And my name, Kanye, my mother named me that, it means only one. That's the meaning of my name. Then, after the song was out, my cousin, Abigail, which I promise I got you some shoes, I'm looking for a size 6, they run a little bit big, said you know that our grandmother, Mawmaw used to say "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord our soul to keep" before she would put me to bed, and my grandmother actually named me Omari, which is the first line, "Hello 'Mari." So I realized at that point that they were both talking to me. It wasn't just my mom, that my grandmother was speaking to me, these generations. So now I'm working on a video game for "Only One" and the idea is it's my mother going through the gates of Heaven and you gotta bring her to the highest gates of Heaven by holding her to the light. We've been working on it for like 6 months CTG: Is that why you kept the lights low at the Grammys? Cause that was the first thing you performed and you felt like you might break down? KW: Nah it was supposed to be more smoke on it and the practice version was better and I wasn't completely satisfied with the visuals on the Grammys. That's why I turnt up on the SNL visuals. I was like I ain't playing, they gotta know I ain't playing. These visuals gotta hurt! AY: Working with Paul McCartney, I read an article where they compare you to John Lennon. Has Paul McCartney ever said anything to you about that? KW: Nah but we talk about any and everything, but I do think that there's the angst that I feel from the world, the angst that I feel from what people are going through in Chicago, what people are going through financially, what people are going through with just... I feel like John felt like that. And when I got past the Gucci store, and got past how cool my jacket was, I finally was, like the song says, the "man I always knew you could be." When I became a protector, a dad, a husband, I finally could stand up and stand for something Envy: Well we appreciate you joining us, man CTG: THE NEW IMPROVED, MEDIA-TRAINED YE! Envy: Kanye West, we appreciate you joining us, we're glad you came back KW: I'm happy to be here Envy: I didn't think you was gonna come back and Charlamagne, man AY: I love that this started so different, he loves your new songs Envy: Calmer guy, humbler guy CTG: Well listen, when I gave him Donkey of the Day last time, what did I say? I said a guy that's so easy to like, but he makes it hard to like him with just a couple antics. But that's part of being human, right? KW: Yeah Envy: Ladies and gentlemen, it's Kanye West! It's The Breakfast Club! Good morning!