Zane Lowe: Nice to see you again man. Thanks for stopping by the BBC for a chat
Kanye West: Good to see you too sir. Thank you
Zane Lowe: So, I was thinking today like where do we begin? Because you’ve been having some remarkable conversations lately, some really in depth, really interesting conversations addressing recent things that have gone on, you know, successes, things that have kind of made people think, talk amongst themselves and it got me thinking like, where were we last time. We were 18 months ago, not far from here and so much has changed in the last 18 months. The first question I wanted to ask you, cause I’ve always wondered how you felt at that time
Kanye West: I had so many interviews where I’m trying to express that I can create, that I can create outside of just the music box and I’m giving examples of work that I did that was really successful and I’m getting just completely shut down. But not just by the company we talked about last time but every single company, every single company you could imagine is just like “no, you are celebrity. You are not allowed to create, you’re not allowed to think, you’re not allowed to have an opinion. You’re just here to wear a red leather jacket and shut up.” And it’s true that as a celebrity you can help to promote something quickly but no one wanted to allow me to think or be involved in the product and you know, as I told you last time I said I’m a product guy
Zane Lowe: Yea, and it was an electrifying conservation, and I mean, it felt like you were taking names that day, it felt like you were also trying to reach people that day and what’s occurred since you know is you have made serious moves into that world. You know, what’s happened recently with Yeezy supply, you know your deal with Adidas, how has that experience been overall for you now with product out and with peoples opinion about the shoes and about what they’ve seen -- how has that experience been for you? How can you put that into context for us?
Kanye West: I mean, every day when you go to the gym or you go to work it’s a challenge. You gotta work hard and you have to completely, tirelessly, countlessly remind people of your vision no matter what. So that’s the way I’mma word it. You know what I’m saying, so we made it to a point where something extremely close, something almost to the level, something past the level of the vision finally hit the globe and Adidas was a company that was flexible enough and had been used to dealing with creatives enough to allow me to create something that was very close to my heart. You know, they original hip hop
Zane Lowe: Of course, Run DMC man I mean they were right there at the very beginning it was kind of a perfect partnership when it was announced, you know, not long after and I wondered when did the conversation actually begin with Adidias after you starting talking about your aspirations and what you wanted to achieve in that industry?
Kanye West: That conversation had already started before then. There was a few conversations with a few companies with a few sportswear companies and um, I remember calling Jon Wexler you know, it was a certain point where I just felt like I couldn’t breathe anymore like I had all these ideas and I felt like I was literally gasping for oxygen because if anyone’s creative, you know like we have this idea of a mass market looking at a celebrity that owns a Lamborghini complaining about something. And anyone that’s creative understands that there’s no amount of money that can be given to them to make them not want to or have to create. There’s no check out and there’s no cheque to stop you from creative. No pun intended when I’m saying no check
Zane Lowe: Was a good one though
Kanye West: Just even thinking about it takes the breath out of me because I mean, as soon as we got the opportunity to actually start making things, there were so many ideas. I mean I look at over 500 images a day on my laptop. And I remember I went into the whole thing about Hypebeast, you know I said “people be dissing me on Hypebeast” and it’s like wait a second, dude, like I been fighting this battle for a long time, since like Universe City. Like no one has any idea what the meeting were like. I’mma throw this one out here. I remember this one guy that worked for Francois Pinault the head of Kering Group came up in my apartment in Paris, while I was working on Yeezus and I had a meeting with him and it was related to doing a deal with Puma. And the guy, actually I forgot about the meeting right, so I had my jacket on and it was a jacket I had done with A.P.C. and I was about to leave, so he shows up at the door and we go to my dining room table and I’m sitting with him, and I tell him like yo I made this jacket. And he makes some joke about, you know “You did look pretty hot. I’m happy to know that you put on all those clothes for me.”
Zane Lowe: Was he joking do you think?
Kanye West: He was leveling. He was leveling the conversation, this is what people do all the time. Like if I meet someone who I respect or I look up to, I will literally like kiss their feet. You know someone that I know that’s put in a lot of work. And it’s a lot of agents, a lot of people who work under the main guy that will level, that will try to level you. You know when they talk to you, they talk down to you. And I’m just sitting like “Whoa, ok.” Obviously I have to show him like hey I’m working on this stuff and it’s coming out good and this is all I have a chance to work on. You know like when I worked with A.P.C. I only had two times to look at the collection, you know I couldn’t really grab it and dig into it the way I dig into like working on “All Of The Lights” or something like that, it’s like, there’s a timeline, a cut-off switch, especially when you’re dealing with apparel and the way that people make apparel currently
Zane Lowe: I can imagine the frustration for you at that moment in time as you’re leading up to what has effectively occurred in the last year. Seeing something like you say, close to the vision you have in your mind. At those early stages, man the frustration of trying to get those ideas out and just like you said, and getting just levelled
Kanye West: Good to see you too sir. Thank you
Zane Lowe: So, I was thinking today like where do we begin? Because you’ve been having some remarkable conversations lately, some really in depth, really interesting conversations addressing recent things that have gone on, you know, successes, things that have kind of made people think, talk amongst themselves and it got me thinking like, where were we last time. We were 18 months ago, not far from here and so much has changed in the last 18 months. The first question I wanted to ask you, cause I’ve always wondered how you felt at that time
Kanye West: I had so many interviews where I’m trying to express that I can create, that I can create outside of just the music box and I’m giving examples of work that I did that was really successful and I’m getting just completely shut down. But not just by the company we talked about last time but every single company, every single company you could imagine is just like “no, you are celebrity. You are not allowed to create, you’re not allowed to think, you’re not allowed to have an opinion. You’re just here to wear a red leather jacket and shut up.” And it’s true that as a celebrity you can help to promote something quickly but no one wanted to allow me to think or be involved in the product and you know, as I told you last time I said I’m a product guy
Zane Lowe: Yea, and it was an electrifying conservation, and I mean, it felt like you were taking names that day, it felt like you were also trying to reach people that day and what’s occurred since you know is you have made serious moves into that world. You know, what’s happened recently with Yeezy supply, you know your deal with Adidas, how has that experience been overall for you now with product out and with peoples opinion about the shoes and about what they’ve seen -- how has that experience been for you? How can you put that into context for us?
Kanye West: I mean, every day when you go to the gym or you go to work it’s a challenge. You gotta work hard and you have to completely, tirelessly, countlessly remind people of your vision no matter what. So that’s the way I’mma word it. You know what I’m saying, so we made it to a point where something extremely close, something almost to the level, something past the level of the vision finally hit the globe and Adidas was a company that was flexible enough and had been used to dealing with creatives enough to allow me to create something that was very close to my heart. You know, they original hip hop
Zane Lowe: Of course, Run DMC man I mean they were right there at the very beginning it was kind of a perfect partnership when it was announced, you know, not long after and I wondered when did the conversation actually begin with Adidias after you starting talking about your aspirations and what you wanted to achieve in that industry?
Kanye West: That conversation had already started before then. There was a few conversations with a few companies with a few sportswear companies and um, I remember calling Jon Wexler you know, it was a certain point where I just felt like I couldn’t breathe anymore like I had all these ideas and I felt like I was literally gasping for oxygen because if anyone’s creative, you know like we have this idea of a mass market looking at a celebrity that owns a Lamborghini complaining about something. And anyone that’s creative understands that there’s no amount of money that can be given to them to make them not want to or have to create. There’s no check out and there’s no cheque to stop you from creative. No pun intended when I’m saying no check
Zane Lowe: Was a good one though
Kanye West: Just even thinking about it takes the breath out of me because I mean, as soon as we got the opportunity to actually start making things, there were so many ideas. I mean I look at over 500 images a day on my laptop. And I remember I went into the whole thing about Hypebeast, you know I said “people be dissing me on Hypebeast” and it’s like wait a second, dude, like I been fighting this battle for a long time, since like Universe City. Like no one has any idea what the meeting were like. I’mma throw this one out here. I remember this one guy that worked for Francois Pinault the head of Kering Group came up in my apartment in Paris, while I was working on Yeezus and I had a meeting with him and it was related to doing a deal with Puma. And the guy, actually I forgot about the meeting right, so I had my jacket on and it was a jacket I had done with A.P.C. and I was about to leave, so he shows up at the door and we go to my dining room table and I’m sitting with him, and I tell him like yo I made this jacket. And he makes some joke about, you know “You did look pretty hot. I’m happy to know that you put on all those clothes for me.”
Zane Lowe: Was he joking do you think?
Kanye West: He was leveling. He was leveling the conversation, this is what people do all the time. Like if I meet someone who I respect or I look up to, I will literally like kiss their feet. You know someone that I know that’s put in a lot of work. And it’s a lot of agents, a lot of people who work under the main guy that will level, that will try to level you. You know when they talk to you, they talk down to you. And I’m just sitting like “Whoa, ok.” Obviously I have to show him like hey I’m working on this stuff and it’s coming out good and this is all I have a chance to work on. You know like when I worked with A.P.C. I only had two times to look at the collection, you know I couldn’t really grab it and dig into it the way I dig into like working on “All Of The Lights” or something like that, it’s like, there’s a timeline, a cut-off switch, especially when you’re dealing with apparel and the way that people make apparel currently
Zane Lowe: I can imagine the frustration for you at that moment in time as you’re leading up to what has effectively occurred in the last year. Seeing something like you say, close to the vision you have in your mind. At those early stages, man the frustration of trying to get those ideas out and just like you said, and getting just levelled
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