Kanye West is the ultimate multi-hyphenate. Rapper, producer, designer, actor, father, husband, and on and on and on. And while his list of titles is certainly impressive — the Ph.D. he received from the Art Institute of Chicago means he’s a doctor as well — he’s looking to add another one: Philosopher.
Recently, Yeezy was enlisted by The Hollywood Reporter to interview the acclaimed designer Axel Vervoordt about his life and career. During the course of their chat, West revealed that he’s currently working on a book about philosophy, or concepts. Anyway, he has already picked out the title. “I’m writing a philosophy book right now called Break the Simulation,” he said.
“I’ve got this philosophy — or let’s say it’s just a concept because sometimes philosophy sounds too heavy-handed. I’ve got a concept about photographs, and I’m on the fence about photographs — about human beings being obsessed with photographs — because it takes you out of the now and transports you into the past or transports you into the future. It can be used to document, but a lot of times it overtakes [people]. People dwell too much in the memories. People always wanna hear the history of something, which is important, but I think it there’s too much of an importance put on history.”
Elsewhere in the chat, West also touched on the topic of ego, saying that it is something, “I fight with that every day.” He also claimed that “I don’t wish to be number one anymore, I wish to be water.”
He also touched on his conflicting emotions about his partner Virgil Abloh being named head of Louis Vuitton. “It’s not bad or good,” he said. “Because [Abloh and I] have been fighting to make apparel at a certain price that still has the same credibility and desirability as something at a higher price. … But when they say he was my creative director, that’s incorrect. He was a creative collaborator.”
You can check out his entire chat over at The Hollywood Reporter.
