More about: Kanye West
Rapper is a one man sound bite machine
Kanye West called in unannounced to Hot97's radio show yesterday to dispel some rumours and tells us that, really, he's just an average guy and actually 'completely boring' amongst some other stuff. OK, Kanye.
If you haven't heard, the rumour mill has been turning recently with reports that West chucked children out Chuck E. Cheese after he wanted his daughter, North, to play on her own there. It seems this was the catalyst for the interview and West sure had a few things to say.
"I haven’t even been to Chuck E. Cheese. But I’m glad that I heard that so I could intercept it. They should be paying me to even say their name," later adding, “I don’t even eat pizza, what am I gonna do at Chuck E. Cheese?”
The rapper was pretty critical of anyone who had been running the story, saying 'I'm just living my life, having a good time, I'm with my family. And I'm getting the opportunity to create," mentioning his clothing lines and films as well as his new album SWISH - but he didn't give a release date for the album either.
“When I walk up to people they’re like, ‘Wow! You’re nice.’ They’re acting like I’m walking actually turning over furniture everywhere I go...I'm in my own zone. I can't go walk around trying to defend myself, chime in on everything."
As with all things Kanye, the interview quickly delved into other subjects, like artistry and innovativeness and West came out with some gems.
"I don't like the statement 'weird' when something is innovative... I hate the fact that creative people are beat down so much and put in a position where they can't even speak out loud. That's the reason why the world is ugly." He went on to say: "There's millions of beautiful colours in the world, but the world is only controlled by one colour. I fight for the people who see those colours... I have the bravery to take the hit."
He was also humble, as always. "If you look at the past ten years, have I contributed more or took away more from the world - from music, stage design, or just from wearing dope-ass clothes at the airport. Have I contributed enough?"
Next up for Kanye? He wants to take some time to focus on his album, on the forthcoming election, on his daughter's birthday and 'recharging' and 'energising'.
"Right now, I'm completely boring, actually... I'm so boring. All I do is go to the studio every day. I'd riding through the 'burbs with no woes." And he's definitely not going out clubbing.
Keep doing you, Kanye. We love it.
You hear the interview with Kanye West on Hot97 below:
Hip hop does belong at Glastonbury: Despite a historic precedence for white, male guitar bands dominating the UK festival scene, Glastonbury has never attempted to tie itself to one specific genre. Some of the most controversial, but ultimately successful, performers have been hip hop artists - Jay-Z and Beyonce, for example, and, lower down the bill, Wu-Tang Clan and Cypress Hill... If you really, truly believe hip hop has no place at Worthy Farm, then feel free to go and enjoy one of the 6,426,351 other acts they'll have performing.
He's headlined festivals before: West is not some young upstart who's come along with one album and usurped our sacred veterans of rock. He's worked his way up with seven hugely successful albums and has proved himself more than capable, if you can excuse the odd rant or two, of headlining massive festivals.
...But he's never done Glastonbury before: As great as it would be to all get our lighters out and sway along to a fourth Glastonbury headline set from Coldplay, it's nice to have a fresh face. In general, Glastonbury does a pretty good job of avoiding booking stale headline acts, but there are still a few predictably safe bands who seem to be wheeled around the festival circuit on autopilot. Kanye is not one of them.
He'll probably bring guests: During his recent Koko gig (Koko to Glastonbury in one year! He's really risen from nowhere) West brought out a plethora of UK grime artists, but there's every chance he'll step that up a gear for Glastonbury. 2Chainz? Raekwon? If he brings out Rihanna, whose album he's executive-producing, it'll be game over. In the very best way. Hell, why not throw Paul McCartney in there too.
He has more hits than you could possibly imagine: OK, maybe if you've got a really great imagination, you could imagine all his hits. But just in case you don't - 'Gold Digger', 'POWER', 'Black Skinhead', 'Stronger', 'N**as In Paris', 'FourFiveSeconds', 'All Of The Lights', 'All Day', 'Heartless', 'Love Lockdown'...and so on, forever.
The visuals are going to be incredible: If you're worried a solo artist won't be able to create the visual spectacle that a band can, then you've clearly not seen photos from West's BRIT performance, or his Louis Vuitton show, or any of his world tours. Visual spectacle is his middle name* and so even if you're right at the back and he looks like an ant to you, it'll be a really spectacular ant. *actually it's Omari
Blowtorches are probably safer at Glastonbury than the O2: When Kanye performed at the BRITs, one of his many visual spectacles was two massive blowtorches, which cast his entire onstage entourage in a mesmeric orange glow. Unfortunately, only one of them seemed to be working. Let's sort that out for June, yeah?
He probably will rant - let's embrace it: Kanye and rants, at this point, go very much hand in hand. At Wireless, he told the crowd, "Fuck whatever anyone thinks. It's about Kanye's dreams. The media are trying to control all of you." He told the Bonnaroo crowd, "I know y'all seen movies and shit, but y'all living a movie right motherfucking now. Because I AM THE NUMBER ONE MOTHERFUCKING ROCK STAR ON THE PLANET." Let's just enjoy it. He doesn't usually say anything particularly offensive, it's entertaining, and it's part of the act. We just wish he'd have some confidence in his own abilities.
Going in as an underdog is actually an advantage: Thanks to the passionate activism of one vehemently angry Kanye detractor, a petition was created asking Emily Eavis to cancel his headline slot "and get a rock band." Nearly 8,000 people are equally as disheartened by the disgraceful underrepresentation of rock bands at festivals, and therefore Kanye will be going into this as even more of an underdog than Metallica. And they came out pretty well.
He has a penchant for theatricality: On his 2013 tour, Kanye climbed a makeshift mountain, was bowed down to by white-clad, masked women and then brought a Jesus "impersonator" onstage. We say impersonator, but we have no actual proof it wasn't Jesus. It's hard to top a guest like Jesus, but perhaps he could bring God out at Glastonbury. Too much to ask?
He will be anything but boring: You might have seen the painfully accurate Portlandia sketch of what it's often like to attend a gig (drudging songs, endless encores, toilet queues, jostling - and the blissful joy of going home.) Kanye's Glastonbury set will not be the kind of plainly mediocre gig that 's so unremarkable you wish you'd just stayed home with Netflix. It'll be eclectic, raucous, eccentric, rant-filled perhaps, but never boring.
This man knows what he is doing: "Oh, do you remember that year that Michael and Eavis made Glastonbury rubbish"- said no one, ever.
More about: Kanye West
