[Michelle]
What is going on and it's Michelle LA's 97-01 radio is what you're listening to. First thing I walk in the door and right behind me here he is Kanye West
[Kanye]
What up
[Michelle]
How are you?
[Kanye]
I'm awesome
[Michelle]
I know you're doing a ton of interviews right now, this is the first time you've been to Amp radio, so I have to say thank you
[Kanye]
Okay, awesome
[Michelle]
This is pretty major and, I don't know, you probably have no way of knowing this, but the very first song I ever played on amp radio, about four years ago, was "Paranoid"
[Kanye]
Well thank you very much
[Michelle]
Absolutely we're huge fans around here
[Kanye]
Thank you, I appreciate that
[Michelle]
Thanks for coming in. So what's the story behind all of a sudden we're seeing you in front of us? Because you haven't done a whole lot of these kinds of interviews but now here you are, so we're thrilled to have you here. You just feel like going out and saying hello?
[Kanye]
Yeah, that's it
[Michelle]
That's awesome. I dig that. So you're out on the Yeezus tour right now which, first, your album is awesome. The live show sold out at Staples on Saturday night, you got another one and then you've got Anaheim on Friday, so tell me a little bit about what to expect at the tour stops, because like I just told you before we went on the air, I saw a little bit of the clips but I feel like it doesn't do it the justice of actually being there and experiencing the show in the moment
[Kanye]
Yeah even if I explain it...you know it's just like creativity central. It's an example of like what DONDA can do - that's my creative company - it's an example of what happens when you put amazing thinkers in a room together and eliminate what they normally do and all the cliches that people slip into and challenge everyone in that room to come up with something completely new, and that's what is, completely new. You know we we experiment with things, and they get better, and it's going to get better as it goes, but if I have an idea, I just do it. I just go for it
[Michelle]
Yeah that's cool, there's a certain fearlessness about you which I really dig. Do you feel like you get crap for that a little bit? The people misunderstand you?
[Kanye]
Yeah I'm not fearless, I just have courage, bravery. Like I have fear, but I overcome my fear. I know how to swim through backlash. I know how to float, I can tread water through backlash. I don't care about backlash if anything, because it's all given me power. Negative, positive, it's all energy and I can use energy
[Michelle]
What really inspires you? I know you're really creative in so many different arenas but what do you look for, what would spark you?
[Kanye]
God. Number one inspiration, God. How can you get something to the you know the greatest. He's the greatest creator of all time, so - if you're being creative - my greatest inspiration is God. He made our universe you know ? So you look that far and say, "if you gotta push hard to create on a more major scale," nothing is more major then the creator. He's given us the power of free will and the ability to create our own space, right
Sometimes people say like, "it seems like you're not satisfied with just creating music," well look at what Howard Hughes did, look what David Stern did, look what Steve Jobs did, look what Da Vinci did, look what Michelangelo did. I have this platform now at age 36 to really put out a lot a creative ideas. Certain people who are not giving me a shot or not backing me, and I can meet with all the billionaires in the world and people just look at me like it's not me, like I haven't created what I've created
So I had to apologize to all the guys in the world for my engagement because I turned up so much on it, but when you go on Jimmy Kimmel and say, "hey I'm a creative genius," I don't think people really understood what I was talking about. So let me make it so y'all can understand what I'm talking about when I say "creative genius" because that's my title
[Michelle]
Do you think you're misunderstood in that aspect? Do you think people just take things the wrong way?
[Kanye]
They just never heard it before. They never tasted that flavor yet
[Michelle]
I just think it's awesome because you have a certain thing about you that you say what's on your mind and your true to yourself and I think a lot of people don't know what to do with that because they're not.
[Kanye]
Yeah and that's what is. If I say, "hey I'm a creative genius," I don't know any other way to explain what I do and the way I think up things and the way I have to fight to get ideas out, had to fight to get my record deal, I'm fighting to be able to make clothes, I'm fighting to be able to make films. It's mixing creativity with the fight, like an athlete.
It's okay for athletes to fight and push it, but they want the creative people to shut up and be quiet. These are the people with the real ideas, that can actually change, can reorganize, can design cities, can restructure a curriculum, can can make life easier you know. That's the part of the game I wanna be in, the "making life more awesome" [field] because I'm so blessed.
I've had so many of my dreams come true. I'm getting married to my dream girl, I have a family, I have good friends around me, I've had some opportunities and what I realized is my greatest power...so, if you asked me a question before, "why am I coming, why am I speaking," I'm not a billionaire. I may not be the richest person on the planet, I might not be the most attractive guy, I might not be the most liked, but I - right now - because of "New Slaves" and because of the position I've always taken, have the most powerful voice by a mile and I'm going to use that. I have a trillion dollars worth of voice.
[Michelle]
And that's very very valuable. So you're talking about you're influences, with God and family and your life and enjoying life and, I was thinking just how much your life has changed even in the past six months to a year and how much has that changed your daily [life]. Does that mellow you out? Change your perspective on things?
[Kanye]
I hang out wit my the girl and my daughter everyday. There's no place I'd rather be, so now even when I was thinking about the things I'm creating or the things I'm doing in business, my biggest goal is to be able to get home to my family. So even, as I'm thinking about things I'm doing for the future, it's like how can I set it up so I can just be my daughter's soccer coach. How can I put myself in that position?
[Michelle]
I can't imagine you showing up at the soccer game, I just think that would be awesome.
[Kanye]
I'm going to be a soccer coach. Like, I'm going to design the uniforms, I'm going to have to redesigned the minivan maybe [laughs]. Maybe me and Elon Musk can design a new type of minivan.
[Michelle]
A new Kanye West mini van. See that's a partnership you could get on board with right there.
[Kanye]
Well DONDA, we want to create everything. We have a perspective on things you see, touch, taste, and feel, just the quality of life. We want to improve the quality of life. It is a product, experience, and content company. So, a form of content could be Yeezus. That is a form of content. Experience could be the concert you went to. A product could be the Yeezy's. Those are examples of things that a collective of creative people have put together
One thing I also want to stress is that the most genius thing about the way I create is to create with other geniuses. To get out of their way. It's not a matter of ego related to any ideas. It's just, who has the best idea? We, actually, are really not ego based in any way. These are things that people put up to confuse you or distract you from what it actually is. At this point it's Michael Jordan time, it's time to go six championships in and let people know this is what we're doing. We're creating at the highest level. I might not be the number one rockstar, but I will be and create the number one creative company. The post internet Disney. The post internet Ralph Lauren