⚔ @kanyewest on everything from X-Men powers to Jeanneret chairs.
Interview drops at 10 p.m. tonight. #ThinkLikeYe pic.twitter.com/gYccUGHRhK— Surface Magazine (@SurfaceMag) November 20, 2016
Pete Davidson may be right about not listening to Kanye West when he’s not rapping, however most fans won’t take that suggestion just yet. But, maybe they will after entertaining themselves with Kanye’s musings on design, fashion, the state of cool and more in a newly published interview with Surface magazine.
The 30-minute Q&A comes after what’s been a rough few days in the public spotlight for ‘Ye, stemming from a string of incidents that includes rants about Jay Z and Beyonce, forgetting racism, praising Donald Trump and more, culminating in the cancellation of 20 dates for his Saint Pablo tour. Still, Kanye’s has been known to say profound things at times so any sit down interview sans a beat and other distraction can always possibly elicit thoughts worth sharing. However, this may not be one of those situations.
First and foremost, Kanye sometimes goes off on tangents in response to very direct questions. The interviewer asks him about Donda and Kanye starts talking about building a utopia. He’s quizzed about being an artist and responds by saying he’s not an artist…even though he referred to himself as an artist just moments before in an earlier response. He does apologize, calling it a “George Costanza moment,” which we can now all add to our daily vernacular. West also makes a remark about preferring working with companies over brands because “there’s something about constant self-promotion in a brand,” perhaps without realizing his wife’s family promotes the hell out of their collective brand at every possible turn.
However, he does have moments of clarity where he gets fired up, like when he begins to talk about his dislike for small talk. “I can’t stand this whole ‘How was your day?’ thing that agents always say,” he says. “I’m like, ‘You don’t care about my day. Why’d you ask me about my day? Did we get done what we were supposed to get done?'” It sounds harsh but let’s not act like many of us don’t feel the same way when our days are driven by the constant need to create tangible results.
In Kanye’s perfect world, he sees a future where people don’t even verbally communicate with one another. Instead, they let emojis do the talking. “I don’t think people are going to talk in the future,” he says. “They’re going to communicate through eye contact, body language, emojis, signs. Imagine that.”
He continues, “If everyone was forced to learn sign language… Yeah, sign language, eye contact. Or thank God for emojis. So often one emoji goes a long way and lets me get on with my whole day.”
At times, he does speak in concrete terms, like when he’s discussing his Yeezy Season shows. His fight for recognition in the fashion world has been well documented and West has clearly faced some unfair scrutiny, despite creating one of the most successful shoe lines out right now with adidas.
“It’s like an editor completely trying to annihilate my credibility because we didn’t have water and the show started late,” he says in response to biting criticism associated with his most recent show. “I care about people’s time; it wasn’t on purpose. The fact that they can outright Lebron-James-went-to-the-Heat-level burn my jersey after all I’d contributed to art, fashion, and culture just in 2016 alone…They said, ‘Ye’s a genius. But in fashion, he doesn’t innovate.'”
“Not having a bunch of colors was an innovation!” he says. “They undermined a color palette that I worked on and studied. There’s a picture I painted in 1995, and it was basically a Pantone chart before I knew what Pantones were.”
Comments like that tie into his words regarding visionaries finding their way into positions of power at young ages and without going through traditional channels, courtesy of the Internet. ‘Ye also taps into how the “uncool” are the ones currently in power, just because they have money to buy their way in, in exchange for sacrificing whatever cool they have. The further up the ladder they go, the less cool they become, which is as accurate a statement as anything he’s ever said, whether there’s a beat involved or not.
Take a visit to Surface‘s site for the full video interview as well as a transcribed version as well. Check out a few highlights from it below.
“It’s not can. It’s will.” ––#KanyeWest
10 p.m. https://t.co/sxCpRK86rR #ThinkLikeYe pic.twitter.com/o1u4xuoK0U— Surface Magazine (@SurfaceMag) November 20, 2016
? What’s more important, design or art itself? https://t.co/pzd58i3TZa#ThinkLikeYe #KanyeWest
(Video: @jeffvespa) pic.twitter.com/3RhRAW8IkI
— Surface Magazine (@SurfaceMag) November 19, 2016
See the full interview with Kanye West on Nov 21. pic.twitter.com/QJ3AiNIehV
— Surface Magazine (@SurfaceMag) November 18, 2016
