Transcript: Kanye West On Breakfast Club 2013

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The Breakfast Club: It's DJ Envy, Angela Yee, Charlamagne Tha God. We are The Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building this morning. And they said it never would happen. That's right. A repeat donkey of the day offender. Right. Kanye Kardashian is in the building.
The Breakfast Club: Oh, man. Don't start with that. Kanye West is here. Good morning, sir.
Kanye West: What's up?
The Breakfast Club: First and foremost, we got to talk about your performance and your show that you've been doing all over New York in the Barclays and Madison Square Garden.
Kanye West: Yeah, did you enjoy it?
The Breakfast Club: I didn't go see the show. They offered me tickets Saturday night for Sunday's show, and I got baby, so I couldn't go see the show. But I heard the show was amazing. I heard you have mountains. I heard you have snow. I heard it's one of the main, well, everybody's telling me that it's not your typical hip hop show. They said you get your full money worth out of it.
The Breakfast Club: I actually went to the show last night. Explain it a little bit. Now I'm going to tell you certain things that happened from me in the audience. First of all, I think it made me like the new album a whole lot more than just listening to it. It's a whole different experience. And there was a little fight in my row at the show.
Kanye West: Oh, wow.
The Breakfast Club: Yeah, there was a scuffle because there were some white guys in the row and they were getting upset during the part of the show where you talk. And I guess they didn't like the, you know, and one of them actually used the N-word. And then the people in front of them got upset and everybody started kind of scuffling. And they were like, if you have a problem, just leave. Just get out of here if you have a problem with it. So is that something that typically happens? Do some people get offended?
Kanye West: Yeah, I don't even, I've never heard of that happening on my show before, but that's interesting.
The Breakfast Club: Now question, while, you know, when you did this show, of course the show seems like it cost a lot of money. And I know most hip hop shows, it's usually, you know, not that expensive. A lot of rappers and not too much of the, I say the hoopla, and you had a lot of hoopla I'm hearing. So why did you want to take so much pride into this show?
Kanye West: I'm just a creative. I'm more like a Walt Disney or something. Like rap is just a chamber of my thoughts. It's something that I really wanted to express as a modern day, you know, poet. Because, you know, if I lived in a past lifetime, maybe I would have been a playwright or something. But in this lifetime... To be the most relevant is to be a rap rock star. You know what I'm saying? And you can express at the highest level there. And for me, I came from art school and everything. I would draw out all these ideas and all these concepts. And the more and more I get to create, the younger and younger and younger I feel. So when I did Glow in the Dark, I felt young. I felt like I was five years old. When I got into a little trouble and stuff, I felt like I had to grow up. I did Dark Fantasy, then I felt like I was 10. Then I did Blueprint 3, then Watch the Throne, then Cruel Summer. And then when I got to Yeezus, I just felt frustrated. And usually I would start the album with blood on the leaves. I know everybody would even like the album more if I did that, but I felt so frustrated in the way I've been marginalized and held.
The Breakfast Club: Why do you feel so frustrated? You say that a lot. I remember you from being outside the studio trying to get people to hear you rap. You was a great producer, but nobody believed you as a rapper. And then it seems like you got to a point where everybody's loving the way that you rap. Now you just seem like you're more frustrated. Do you not like the reception Jesus has gotten? Because I didn't like the album at all. And I was a Kanye West fan. But Jesus was whack to me.
Kanye West: Yeah, that's great. That's great.
The Breakfast Club: So what were you saying?
The Breakfast Club: I was asking about the whole Yeezus, like, what makes you so frustrated?
Kanye West: Yeah, it's not about Yeezus. It's about, you know, Michael Jackson was told he couldn't play videos on MTV because he was considered to be an urban artist. So as soon as I started talking about clothing, everybody's going to talk about urban clothing line. What I'm trying to say is, like, It's 1,460-something billionaires in the world. I don't know exactly because somebody might have thought of a new tech idea and they companies valued at what? 1,470 billionaires. There's only seven black ones, and we know some of the most famous ones, like Oprah or whatever. So... You know, in order to really impact and be in a position of power at this point, you got to be a billionaire. It ain't about being like, you know, a superstar. I don't know nobody that like sells a lot of like records and gets a lot of radio spins. That's actually a billionaire either. We get into so, so much of like, you know, arguing with each other that we're not looking at the main thing. But what I did with Yeezus is I took the, you know, the power into my own hand. I wanted to remove, you know, the hits from it. I wanted to remove the choruses. Of course, blood on the leaves and bound it's got a chorus you know i like resolve the album and let everybody know it's all good at the end of it but it's not all good you know like i said i'm from chicago people is dying every day and everybody think we're gonna do a benefit concert and help that out but i need to be put in a position to be able to apply my thoughts the same thoughts you know before i came in the game rappers was killing each other you ain't even heard about that no but the first time rappers rapped on a song with each other that were a god level all of them was swagger like us after that all the songs
Kanye West: The thing is, we're not each other's enemies. I'm showing us how we can work together. You know, but in fashion or whatever, or, you know, product design, they try to marginalize us and say we can only have an urban clothing line or we can only do this. And, of course, we're going to have an urban clothing line, we're going to wear it to death, and then it's gone. Now, meanwhile, Ralph Lauren can build his story up, you know what I'm saying, show his family, but, you know, I'm showing my family. And I think, actually, I have a love-hate relationship with the paparazzi, but actually I love them because they're They empowering us. They empowering us over, you know, Graydon Carter or Vanity Fair that want to say, you know, Kate Upton is Marilyn Monroe. Kate Upton ain't Marilyn Monroe. Kim Marilyn Monroe. You know that. She was controversial. She controversial. This is a reality. I'm living inside of a dream world. To me, don't nothing matter to me except for the people and the way I can affect them. I almost lost my life. I lost my mama. I went from like, you know, Jay-Z being my idol, still is my idol, to him being across the stage on me. So I know that anything is possible. And I know when they hold me down. My BS meter is at an all-time high.
The Breakfast Club: Yeah, but what you accomplished is so much.
Kanye West: Yeah.
The Breakfast Club: What's so mad?
The Breakfast Club: They want to hear him talk, man. No offense. They want this man to throw them blows, man. That's what they're waiting for. They're waiting for Charlamagne to tap these gloves and go at Ye.
The Breakfast Club: I'm not trying to throw blows, but this is what I want to know. Let's go. To me, it seems like you're such a walking contradiction because you'll denounce the corporations, but then you'll get on stage and say you need Nike and Adidas to back you. That makes no sense to me. 100%.
The Breakfast Club: But how can you denounce the corporations, say F the corporations, and say you feel like a slave, but then ask the companies to back you?
Kanye West: And ain't that I feel like a slave? We are mentally enslaved. We slave to brands. We enslaved to like a Ben symbol. We enslaved to chains. A woman is enslaved to the concept of diamonds are a girl's best friend like girls in London don't even wear.
The Breakfast Club: We'll be right back.
The Breakfast Club: What that got to do with you denouncing corporations but then still asking corporations to be in business with you? That's where the contradiction is.
Kanye West: I'm not denouncing the corporation. I'm denouncing the people that have the job at the corporation at that time. Because, you know, when I wanted to get my deal, it was A&Rs that don't work there no more telling me how I needed to work with another rapper or how I wasn't a rapper and blah, blah. Now it's people that's at the corporations. They got the ability and the facilities that if I put my genius to it, that I can affect culture in a higher way the way I affected people when I made them Louis's.
The Breakfast Club: The Breakfast Club interviewing Kanye West.
Kanye West: Until you listen to me, because I'm influential. The reason why I'm influential, same reason why you want me to come to your show, or you want me to wear your product, is the same reason why you gotta involve me, and you gotta cut me in. You know what I'm saying? People got fat without me. You cutting me in. Because people be having negotiations. When I was negotiating with Nike, they said, okay, cool, Kanye, you been screaming up and down, we gonna give you a deal for Yeezy, finally. Because they was marginalizing me, let me only design two shoes over a five year period. People talking about the red October, that's the design for three years ago. You know how many ideas I got? You know what I'm saying? So they try to marginalize me, and then they say, look, we're going to give you $4 million a year to design this. I said, what about royalties? They said, look, you know, you're not a professional athlete, so you don't get no royalties. I said, look, man, I go to any of these arenas and play one on nobody. I'm a performance athlete, and more than being an athlete, I'm Walt. I'm like Howard Hughes. I'm like David Stern. I'm like Steve Jobs. If anything, that's a compliment to them. I'm like Michelangelo because I'm the new version of that. And anybody that backs me is going to be the Medici family that back Michelangelo at this point. You know what I'm saying? So when they told me I couldn't get no royalties, it's like, wait a second, you want me to work for Nike for two more years? When I tell my daughter in two years that I've been working trying to make Nike still hot and I still don't have, you know, the backing to really support and protect her because she in a position of a level of royalty like the prince and the princess out in London. But they got more paper. They got heritage. Me and Kim, we on our grind. We had to do what we had to do to get to this point to be able to support our family. But we ain't there yet. We ain't financially there to the point to make sure that North is safe at all times. And that's the reason I'm turning it up right now.
The Breakfast Club: Let me ask you a question. You mentioned something about when you came out doing the record and you said nobody believed and the A&Rs are fired. Dame was one of those people that believed. And we haven't seen you in it ever. But the first thing people said was when Dame and Jay split, why did you decide to go with Jay and not Dame since he was the one that had your back when nobody listened and nobody was listening.
Kanye West: That was really big, brother. Yeah, you know what it was? It's because, you know, last night... I think what people call a rant, what I call a visionary stream of consciousness, it was better. Like right now, this morning is better because my voice is hoarse. The problem is when I get too loud, it's just too loud. You know what I'm saying? You know how people come into the studio, play their music, they play it so loud for you and they make you think you like a beat. You don't even know if you like it now. You just blew somebody's ears out and stuff. So when I'm talking, a lot of times it's like I'm blowing people's ears out. My technique is too harsh.
The Breakfast Club: The Breakfast Club interviewing Kanye West.
Kanye West: I had that truth that Dame has in him. We the same. Like me and Cam, me and Dame, we the same. But I wanted to learn this technique that Jay got of being actually being likable. Like when I was doing Watch the Throne, one of the main reasons why I did it was to learn, you know, Jay's techniques of how he talked to people. Man, I be talking to people the wrong way sometimes. I'll be rubbing them the wrong way.
The Breakfast Club: Yeah.
Kanye West: You guys are like the same over there.
The Breakfast Club: Yeah.
Kanye West: So Jay-Z know how to move in a room full of vultures. You know what I'm saying? And as his little brother, I needed to learn that technique because I got something that God want me to give the world.
The Breakfast Club: You know, I'm only doing five. Listen, you also said you don't listen to nobody in these corporations that's older than you. But that made no sense to me because we all got a birthday. So one day you're going to get older. What if somebody has that same train of thought to you?
Kanye West: I ain't saying they got to listen to me. They got to choose if they want to listen to me. But one thing, an example somebody gave me, they said, I'm wiser than you. I'm this, I'm that. I was like, you ain't cut no check, though. If you older and you wiser, then you should have enough money and a position of power to cut me a check.
The Breakfast Club: Money has nothing to do with it, Kanye. Come on.
Kanye West: Well, I'm saying when I gave Big Sean any advice, I gave him a deal first. Now, the thing is, if Big Sean come up and rap for me, and I give him some advice, but I don't give him a deal, at that point, I'm sonning him. I'm like, take that advice and go run with it. No, we ain't Jewish. We don't got family that got money like that. The rappers became a new family. Dame created a family at Rockefeller and stuff.
The Breakfast Club: The Breakfast Club interviewing Kanye West.
The Breakfast Club: And she would be the J of the situation right there. So it's, man, that's my point to that. Now with all your artists, with Big Sean and with Pusha T, with all your artists, I mean, there's things that I do sometimes that Charlamagne Yee don't like. Are they that open with you? If they say, you know what, I didn't like this type of record. We heard when Big Sean was up here and he said that he didn't. He said it wasn't his favorite album. Jesus was his least favorite album. You dropped him from good for a little minute.
Kanye West: No, I ain't never dropped him from good. But I'm going to tell you something. Everybody who make good music on good music. Drake owned good music. Rouse owned good music. If you make good music, you own good music. This ain't about no wrestling team. This ain't about a basketball team. This ain't me putting on a jersey for David Stern and going my best and having a Mandingo fight in front of the corporations. This ain't about that. This is about us coming together because we have strength as a people. But it's not just about black people. It's about all people. You know what I'm saying? I just want to give people advice. I inspire Big Sean as much as I inspire Drake. You know, it ain't about the particular stipulations of my contract to Universal. I don't believe that. I don't believe in Universal. I don't believe in none of this. Nike present themselves as such a big corporation, right, that you, in your mind, you think Nike is big as Apple almost. To the hood. Nike is big now. Because of Jordan. And because of me and Don C. Because we started wearing them retro Jordans when the soles was falling apart. You know, so Nike's only a $26 billion company. Apple's a $600 billion company. They not the same level. And part of the reason is because they too busy trying to compete, trying to do the smaller ideas. It's only one Steve Jobs. You know what I'm saying? And now it's only one Kanye West. And I'm just like Steve.
The Breakfast Club: Why do you talk so much about money nowadays, man? I used to look at you as like a real revolutionary. You know real revolutionaries didn't need money to change the world? Malcolm X wasn't rich. Martin Luther King Jr. wasn't rich. Like, I don't understand why everything is so much about money and stuff to you now.
Kanye West: Because you need product. You need to own something to have a voice at this point. Because I'm telling you.
The Breakfast Club: You already got it. You don't need to own something to have a voice yet. You had a voice. When you got on stage and you said George Bush don't care about black people, you was using your voice. You don't need money to have a voice.
Kanye West: I could use my voice. But what happened if y'all don't buy no other albums? Then that voice, people are going to say, oh, he like Arsenio Hall, and he was turning up too much, and now you fired. But when you got money, can't nobody fire you.
The Breakfast Club: No. You know what makes me buy your albums? The great music you produce. You know what makes me not buy your albums? This new narcissistic, egotistical personality you got. That's what turns me off. It makes me say, oh, I'm not going to this show. I don't want him, man. I don't want to buy his records.
Kanye West: Exactly. But I'm thinking that your last name is the God, right?
The Breakfast Club: Absolutely.
Kanye West: So anybody that's a God can recognize a God. Jesus can recognize Jesus. I mean, y'all know what it is. God's got to keep other gods on point, too.
The Breakfast Club: Keep me on point, brother. You see I'm not on any square.
Kanye West: You seem like you're on your square right now, bro.
The Breakfast Club: I'm 100% on my square, but I ain't saying I couldn't use no tighten up. I'm not saying. I'm saying I'm infallible, that I'm flawless. I'm saying I got a cause. And I'm saying that people have been... Look, if you were creative and you designed the Yeezy ones and the Yeezy twos and they said you can't design nothing else, that would be like if I made Jesus Walks and they said I couldn't make late registration. That would be like if Drake made his first single and they say he couldn't make another single. That's how they was playing it. And then the point where the Yeezys get such an impact and they say, but you can't even have royalties? And we gonna like...
The Breakfast Club: But you can do it on your own. You got enough money to do it on your own, like Don C and his hats. Don C, he makes his own hats on the side. It's not distributed amongst a whole lot of people. It's small. And you can do the same thing with the leather pants, with the stuff that you created and started.
Kanye West: People say you could do it on your own, but it's industries. These industries have been set up like the coal industry, like the music industry, like the newspaper industry, clothing, manufacturing, electricity. It's something different to the way these billionaires run the world. And we not a part of that. We've only been let in on a communication level. It's a new form of cotton that we all picking. You communicating radio every day. I'm communicating music every day. But what I'm trying to tell y'all is ain't none of us free. Ain't none of us billionaires. Billionaires, they don't care. They do whatever's going on.
The Breakfast Club: We don't have to be a billionaire to be free. Stop equating freedom to money, my brother. Where does that mentality come from? It comes...
The Breakfast Club: Why are you equating freedom to money? Money is not what makes us free as people, man.
Kanye West: Y'all would like to, they would like us to think that we are free, but we completely control. We control by a Nike sign. We control by peer pressure. We control by the longing for a particular car to set at a high price. Why do Benz's cost so much? Zara and H&M came and beat Louis Vuitton ass in a matter of short time. What they do, the reason why we want that so much is because they take the creatives from St. Martin's mostly, where Ricardo Tisci, Phoebe Philo, Alexander McQueen came from. And all those guys have go and work at Louis Vuitton, like Marc Jacobs. They work at Givenchy. They work at these different places. And they make that stuff that's so good that that's what we want the most. So basically the most talented people at making visuals and making apparel are put in a luxury box by a small group of billionaires and made us wish to desire LV and fight amongst ourselves and like walk around with a bag and stuff. And what I'm saying is I learned at this point from being Kanye West. And then it's kids out there buying a thousand dollar sneaker, spending a month worth of pay because I wore it because it make them feel like that's what they need to have in a club. And then I went on to talk about the CCA and hip hop crimes and like, you know, drug crimes that are related to black people having more time related to them so they can do legal modern day slavery. So I took it from actually mental slavery to alcoholism. Actual slavery that they want to enslave us, that they borderline. It's companies. It's companies that have the same company that will allow it to be a song that promotes guns, that promotes guns, promotes guns, would be connected with the exact same corporation that promotes privately owned prisons. It's actually the same company. It's actually slavery today.
The Breakfast Club: But you do know that slaves in the 1800s didn't have a choice. You don't have to be in this industry.
Kanye West: Boy, this is my choice. You can unshackle your own chains and go work at Walmart.
The Breakfast Club: No, but he has freedom. You talk about how happy you are when you're with your daughter and you're with your fiance. That's your freedom right there. You don't need none of that money. You don't need the leather pants, the Louis Vuitton and that. That's your freedom. You kids, you don't need fashion to feel important.
Kanye West: That's what I said last night. I turned up. I'm turning up and I'm growing. I'm learning because I'm still in shackle. I'm still mentally shaved. I'm going to grow from this interview. I've been so excited. I've been waiting for this interview. I want you to tell me everything that I'm doing wrong in front of everybody so that I can improve that.
The Breakfast Club: All right, but let's talk about the Bound 2 video. Let's talk about the Bound 2 video then. That was a terrible video. And you know that, Yank. You're not going to sit here and tell me you look at the Bound 2 video. You got to explain that video to us a little bit. Now, you talk about that video. Now, here go the BS industry stuff. The label rep's like, no, wrap it up. He said 10 minutes. But let's talk about the video. Talk about Bound 2 video before we discuss it. What was your mind frame of Bound 2 and what did you want the people to get out of it? What was the treatment for that video?
Kanye West: I wanted to take white trash t-shirts and make it into a video.
The Breakfast Club: So you wanted it to look bad?
Kanye West: Yes. I wanted it to look as phony as possible. I wanted the clouds to go one direction, the mountains to go one direction, to want the horses to go over there. Because I want to show you that this is The Hunger Games. I want to show you that this is the type of imagery that's being presented to all of us. And the only difference is a black dude in the middle of it. You know what I'm saying?
The Breakfast Club: You should have removed yourself from that circus and put Jay Pharoah in there and had the other chick that plays Kim on SNL so it looks like it was a comedy sketch. That would have been dope.
Kanye West: Yeah, that could be cool, but I'm like Marina Abramovich. This is like performance art. The thing is, I ain't got a problem with looking stupid. I ain't got a problem.
The Breakfast Club: That's how I know you're really a G. That's how I know Kanye West still exists within you.
Kanye West: Yeah, I don't have a problem with making mistakes in front of people. And the thing is, you create stuff, you're on the borderlines, you can like it, and people can respond to it. People can not respond to it. People can respond to it later. People hate it, 808's a heartbreak.
The Breakfast Club: I did.
Kanye West: I love it. That's the sound now. But you know it's people that hate it, 808s. That's the sound now. On-site ain't the best version of itself, but it was on the timeline. You know what I'm saying? All of the lights took two years. On-site took four months. If on-site took...
The Breakfast Club: Two years, and I listen to it more, you'd have more.
Kanye West: I'm a great postmodern creative. As a futurist, I don't always have the facilities to create the way I want. Like when Nike drops the flyness, that's a futurist concept that they have the time to create and put out. All the Lights is a futurist song that it started as a Jeezy record with horns on it. Then we put in another bridge, and then Dream wrote the hook, and then Rihanna sang it, and by the time y'all got it, it was to the level of like the Nike Flydance or something like that. On Sight is literally, and Yeezus is literally a listening session for the world. Y'all got the joints of y'all in the car, because I feel at this point, everybody in the car with me, like if I pulled you down and said, yo, listeners, tell me what you think about it, and I just drop it now. You would have told me it was crap, and don't do that.
The Breakfast Club: I would have told you why. You have four dope records, Bound 2, Blood on the Leaves, New Slaves, Black Skinheads. The rest of it, I was like, what the hell is he doing?
Kanye West: People hate Black Skinhead, though. People hate it.
The Breakfast Club: I like Black Skinhead. But show me, I would say if you went to go see the show, you would feel different about the album.
Kanye West: Yeah, but I didn't see the show. I heard the audio. Sonically, it wasn't pleasing to my ears. Now, let's talk about paparazzi a little bit. Now, you've been going through it with paparazzi. But listen, you know you caused all those paparazzi problems yourself, because nobody can make you angry without your consent.
Kanye West: Yeah, I'm learning. I'm learning how to balance. I mean, this is space that I'm in. Like, this level of fame and just being like, you know... Just a black man in America in an interracial relationship with a lot of creative dreams compressed by the idea of what celebrities are supposed to do at all times and getting in trouble all the time on the media just for being true. You know what I'm saying? This is like outer space. This is like my first time in space. Think about this. For the most part, when people... Don't like me is because I said the truth. So if I can get in so much trouble for telling the truth, what are you being told all the rest of the time?
The Breakfast Club: Give us an example of the truth you told that has gotten you in trouble.
Kanye West: George Bush. Beyonce had the best video. You ain't even seen the video. You want to talk about how Bound 2? Man, we in this together. We are a group. If Beyonce make a dope video, we're all a part of that. If Drake make a dope song, we're all a part of that. It ain't a matter of me having the best thing at this time. It's a matter of us having the best thing at this time. Y'all have a dope interview. I'm a part of that. I came to this radio station for you to attack me because that's what people want.

The Breakfast Club: Who do you talk to, Kanye, when you want to get an honest opinion on something or you need some feedback or you need somebody to check you? Who do you talk to?
Kanye West: Talk to God.
The Breakfast Club: God tells you to denounce the first black president and his family?
Kanye West: I didn't denounce them. How did I denounce them? What did I say exactly?
The Breakfast Club: You say things like that you and Kim are on that level.
Kanye West: No, I say we're more relevant. Don't nobody care about what Obama wearing.
The Breakfast Club: It's not true. Every time Michelle wears something, it's in Vogue or something.
Kanye West: Yeah, do you care about Vogue? Do you read that?
The Breakfast Club: It's a different audience.
Kanye West: You care about the sweatshirt I got on because I know you like, man, that sweatshirt hot. It's a different demographic. That's what you care about.
The Breakfast Club: But you did say something like you would shoot the president a fade or five.
The Breakfast Club: He didn't say that.
The Breakfast Club: It seemed like it.
Kanye West: I'm from Chicago, too.
The Breakfast Club: I guess you said something to the fact that if he mentions my fiancée again, I'm from Chicago, too. I might catch him a five.
Kanye West: I didn't say, see y'all putting words in my mouth.
The Breakfast Club: He didn't say that. That's what I'm asking.
Kanye West: What I'm saying is, all I care about is God and my family. I don't care about what position nobody got. And you either helping me or you hurting me. Like Dr. King said, when we was dealing with outward racism, because it's still racism in the corporations. It's still classism, segregation, discrimination. People still being held back. Like Dr. King said, he said, look, just because you're not committing a racist act, if you see a racist act and you turn your head, that's still racist.
Kanye West: So you take me as a creative. At the end of the day, when I made Glow in the Dark and when I made Graduation, that's the point when I should have had a deal with Disney. That's the point when I made the first Yeezys, I should have been able to make the next ones just like that. That's the point when I should have been given the opportunity to create more, but they want to box me into a music box. Music is fleeting. Ain't no 50-year-old rock star that you care about. This is a young man's sport.
Kanye West: I got ideas about... Is all the white rock stars still prospering? They can still prosper, and I can still make money on stage, but what I want to give y'all is that feeling of when I was in fourth grade drawing Jordans that I applied to the Yeezys that you can't deny that people lined up for that, that you can't deny if I had a pair of red Yeezys for y'all, y'all wouldn't...
The Breakfast Club: You do realize that's not why we love you. We love you because of the music, bro. You gave us that feeling with albums like College Dropout, Graduation, Late Registration. We don't care about your designing sneakers and clothes and all that. That means nothing to us.
Kanye West: Yeah, no, Yeezys do mean something to the culture.
The Breakfast Club: Not more than the music.
The Breakfast Club: Wait, so you still don't have a release date for the Yeezys? What's the date of the Yeezys? That's what people want to know.
Kanye West: You know what Nike told me? You know what Nike told me when I asked them?
The Breakfast Club: What's that?
Kanye West: We're not sure. That's what they told me.
The Breakfast Club: I thought you controlled it.
Kanye West: That's my whole point.
The Breakfast Club: All right, I get it.
Kanye West: That's my whole point. They be sunning me. They be acting like I ain't me. At the end of the day, everything you see over the past 10 years in music, that's a piece of me. I have influenced all of that. That's a piece of me. And right now, my focus like that, I ain't that live like Drake every week. And when I hear language, I'm like, man, I love that. You know, if he wrote that for me, I would have said it. But do I feel that way? No, I feel like what I'm saying on Bound 2. I feel like what I'm saying on New Slaves. And that may or may not connect with people on the same level as worst behavior.
Kanye West: It's Drake's season now. It's happening. You've seen Jay have his season. You've seen Kanye have his season. And now it's Drake's season. That's the reality. But I got a season in this product. I'm the Tupac of product. You're going to see I'm better than Ralph Lauren. You're going to see I'm going to be bigger than H&M, bigger than Louis Vuitton. In 10 years of creativity, they say change your job every 10 years. Do you want me to still be the old in the club talking about, girl, come to my room and...
The Breakfast Club: We don't want you to be R. Kelly.
Kanye West: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. No knock to R. Kelly. I'm not even going to verbalize that because I know my voice travels mountains and stuff like that.
The Breakfast Club: If you're a genius, why do you feel the need to tell everybody? Why you just don't show and prove by actions and deeds and not words and lip service?
Kanye West: Because when I ask Nike when the Yeezys come out, they say, we ain't sure yet. That's the reason I'm doing crowdsourcing of public opinion to turn up and let y'all understand what I'm going through. I came here to Charlemagne to God to talk directly to the people so y'all could understand what I'm dealing with. So y'all get some clarity.
The Breakfast Club: People don't care about your rich problem? You sold $150 t-shirts, Ye?
Kanye West: I didn't price the t-shirt. That's what I'm trying to say. I was just trying to design. I did not price the t-shirt. I did not price the Yeezys. I did not price the Louis Vuitton. But on my next ventures, I will be pricing them. And y'all can say this is what we want. We want you to make music to you, Ron. You can't marginalize me. You can't tell me what creativity I'm supposed to do on this earth. I can tell you right now, I don't want to do no more songs. And that's my prerogative. You know what I'm saying? That's my idea. That's what I want to do. You can't control me. So, you know, all corporations, radio stations, y'all can't control me. Y'all don't understand that. I'm turned all the way. I believe in me. Just believe in you. Let me do me. You like it? Cool. You don't? Fast forward.
The Breakfast Club: So fashion, what you say, is what you're passionate about right now, and that's what you really want to make sure...
Kanye West: It's not even fashion. It's clothing. Eve made Adam eat an apple, and then it became illegal to be naked. I want to help y'all with y'all opinion of the law.
The Breakfast Club: I don't know what you just said. What the hell are you talking about?
The Breakfast Club: Wait a second. Eve made Adam eat the apple, and ever since then, it's been illegal to be naked. It's in the Bible. I'm a Christian.
The Breakfast Club: So you want us all to be naked? I thought you want to make clothes.
The Breakfast Club: Shut up, man.
Kanye West: Yeah, but what I'm saying is I do still love music. And when I produce, people told me, stop. Don't start rapping because that would mess up your production. I'm telling you, once I start producing, y'all going to get doper albums. I would start the album with Blood on the Leaves. If I had the situation I wanted to, but I wanted to show you the brash. I wanted y'all to feel my pain. On sight, the way it sound ain't no different than when I did through the wire and I put that accident on my face. The way that face, the way that photo look, that's what they be hitting with me.
Kanye West: Bernard Arnault, head of Louis Vuitton, said he didn't understand why he needed to take a meeting with me. Okay, you don't understand why you need to take a meeting with Kanye West. I'm going to show you why you need to take a meeting with Kanye West. Everybody in Atlanta right now at the Louis Vuitton store, if you black, don't go to Louis Vuitton today. That's why you need to take a meeting with Kanye West, Bernard Arnault.
Kanye West: When Francois Pinault offered me a deal last year and he took it away, then he signed Alexander Wayne to Balenciaga, then he supported Christopher Kane, and I think he did something else like that. I love Alexander Wang. I love Christopher Kane. But that's only happened one other time in history. And that's when Jordan was a third round pick, third draft pick. It's only happened one time.
Kanye West: My influence, I don't see people lining up in the stores. Anything I drop, people lining up. And it ain't one black designer that make a suit jacket. It ain't one black designer that makes shoes except for Jason Mayne from Brand Joy and he's just left. We don't got it like that. When I tell you only seven black billionaires look at that marginalization and we feel like we happy because me and Rick Ross got a Maybach or I got a Sprint outside or a couple of us or they put a black president.
Kanye West: Man, let me tell you something about The Breakfast Club interviewing Kanye West. You know they could just put us back or put us in a corporation. You know we ain't in a situation. Can you guarantee that your daughter could get a job at this radio station? But if you own this radio station, you could guarantee that. That's what I'm talking about.
The Breakfast Club: So why you don't start on the ground level? Because you came from nothing and now you became Kanye West. So why start at the top? Start with the groundskeepers and not the gatekeepers.
Kanye West: I'm going every level. You've seen me drop that Yeezus pop-up tour. I mean, that pop-up tour store. We sold $350,000 of merchandise in two days. We got lineups. I'm starting at the ground. I'm using my voice. I'm in the middle. I'm working with photographers. I'm breaking down the barriers of just the way people perceive fashion. You know what I'm saying? If you think about it...
The Breakfast Club: Talk about the Confederate flag, too, because people are upset about that. I'm from Columbia, South Carolina, where the Confederate flag still flies over the statehouse lawn. I've seen people protest to take that flag down for years. It's just like the word, you can't make that into a positive.
Kanye West: Hey, as an artist, and in this world, we can do whatever we want. Ain't nothing real. This station start losing viewers, listeners. They'll turn this to an office for paper or something like that.
The Breakfast Club: Yeah, absolutely.
Kanye West: You know what I'm saying? Ain't nothing real. It's all iconography that we put a mindset on it. People are going to write in the history books about what I'm doing right now. You're going to look back at 20 years and look at the George Bush moment and look at the Beyonce moment, look at the Confederate flag moment, and look when I turned up and made a bigger corporation than H&M and LVMH. And y'all are going to remember that.
The Breakfast Club: And we're going to be listening to Drake.
The Breakfast Club: I've never seen no revolutionary do it on a business thing. The revolutionaries that I like are revolutionaries that are connected with the people. It wasn't about corporations, man. And I think, and this is just me, as a guy that's been a fan of yours for years, and I just think that you're too materialistic and too worried about those corporations nowadays, man.
Kanye West: It ain't materialism at all, and I'm glad that you keep on, because I think it's important for me to simplify and repeat. So it's important for you to keep asking this question, because if somebody's sitting down getting their hair cut right now, if somebody's... Somebody that don't understand, and that's the reason why it's important for me to come and for you to ask these questions so people can really understand and really get it because it's such a futuristic way of thinking.
Kanye West: You know, if you look at an interview from me from 10 years ago, everybody says, I love that interview. People didn't love it back then, though, because I was speaking to the future. I'm 10 years ahead mentally, and I'm trapped in today's time. And every now and then I crack you a smile for 2013, but I'm cracking you a frown for 2023. And I'm focused on what it's going to be. Just mark my words.
Kanye West: As I have Kanye West, you've seen my execution. Did I not become the biggest rock star on the planet? Did I not? Influence all musicians. Did I not go and get the exact girl that I wanted? Did I not start my family? Did I not ruffle the feathers of two presidents? Did I not get a chance to work with my idol? Did I not make Louis Vuittons? Did people not line up at the Yeezy store? Did I not make the college dropout? Late registration, graduation, 808s, Blueprint 1, Blueprint 3, Watch the Throne, Cruel Summer, and Yeezus if you like it or not.
The Breakfast Club: So what are you going to be in... I just want to know this. What is the end result for Kanye West? What are you looking to be?
Kanye West: Okay. In the movie, it would be a combination of Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Michelangelo. That's it.
The Breakfast Club: That's it?
The Breakfast Club: Can I ask you one quick question? You had an HBO special that everybody was excited for. What ended up happening with that? Because I know they said the pilot got leaked and it seemed like it was going to be a great idea.
Kanye West: Yeah, it was called Little Inappropriate. It's kind of like a urban version. It's like herb your enthusiasm. You know, I'm not no actor. You know what I'm saying? I can't act this out. I'm not a professional actor, film, television star, whatever. I'm a professional dreamer. You know, this is like a dream to me. It was a dream for me to come here to have this opportunity to talk to y'all. It was a dream to me to be on the radio. I'm still dreaming. I'm dreaming as much as when I first heard Through the Wire played on the radio. I'm dreaming like that.
Kanye West: You know, and I hear the way people turn to blood and leaves. I hear y'all. I'm going to make some adjustments. You know what I'm saying? I also got my deal, though. You know what I'm saying? I also got my deal. I also got my girl. I also got my family. So things are set. Before you really get everything you want, sometimes you got to just... You know, shake that cage, because they ain't just going to give it to you, as you see. They ain't going to hand it to you. You're going to say, when the Red Octobers come out, they're going to talk about some, we ain't sure yet.
The Breakfast Club: All right. You know, I thought I was going to leave here with some type of understanding. I'm more confused about this Kanye guy.
The Breakfast Club: Well, it seems like Kanye, there's a lot of obstacles in his way that he feels like he has to, it seems like you have something to prove.
Kanye West: Yeah, definitely. And I think it's cool for you to be confused if anybody else is confused because you should keep questioning until it's proven.
The Breakfast Club: Yeah, but I don't want to keep giving you donkey of the day. Okay?
Kanye West: I don't want to do that. You know what? I don't care. I love it. It brings relevance. I might not have the song of the day, but I got the donkey of the day. Whatever you have to do. You know what I'm saying? It don't matter to me. Hate and love are very similar emotions. The opposite of love is you don't care.
The Breakfast Club: Does it bother you when I call you Kanye Kardashian?
Kanye West: Man, man, I'm going to tell you something. At nighttime, when I go to bed with my girl, I would change my last name.
The Breakfast Club: Okay, there you have it. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that's Kanye West. We appreciate you for joining us. He's fine with it. We want you to come more often, man. It's been three years, man. It's been too long. And, you know, Envy saw you one day and he said you ignored him. He just walked right by me, man. You ignored him.
Kanye West: I'm sorry. I apologize for that, Envy. And I apologize for anybody whenever I don't stop. I'm trying to become a better person. I'm trying to be more like my big brother, Ho, because he's like a... I'm going to take... I'm going to take... Man, I'm about to have... Charles, man, you definitely going to listen to that album before it come out. I ain't taking no more chances. Next album, you flying out to Paris. I'm going to give you... So I'm going to put you on this private jet. It's going to be so like private. I'm going to put some other people on. It's going to be a coach ticket.
The Breakfast Club: You need some real niggas around you. You need some real niggas around you, yeah. I feel like you got a terrible circle around you, yeah.
Kanye West: Now the thing is, you know, I'm not going to come into defense of that, but it definitely is true where people say, you know what, I want to tell you what I feel, but also I feel like, damn, and sometimes I was on. There's times people told me, man, 808s, maybe you should change your name on it because can't nobody see you singing the autotune. And it worked. There's some things I'm going to do that's going to work. There's some things I'm going to do that's not going to work, but I'm telling you.
Kanye West: Bruce Springsteen dropped his album called Nebraska, and right after that, he did Born in the USA. This next one, I have a feeling like this next one, because of what we did right now, has to be Born in the USA. I couldn't even just give y'all just the normal hits. I had to go so angst and so anti, because people were trying to classify me as like a new David Beckham or something. I had to show y'all my artistic credibility is at the highest level, a level of Gagosian style.
Kanye West: You know, Jeff Koons, Claudio Silvestrine, Anna Wintour, whoever is the highest level of communication and respect, Graydon Carter, that's the level Kanye West is at. Y'all got it. Because the thing is, when I was giving y'all what y'all wanted with Click, I was getting commercialized a little bit too. Click is a hit. But sound a little bit commercial. So I had to pull it all the way back, hit in the chest right quick.
Kanye West: And then, just like how Release were bound towards the end, or I gave y'all Blood on the Leaves toward the end, I had to put that pressure on y'all so y'all would understand what y'all dealing with. Because they wanted to have a top MC list, put me number six. As long as I'm rapping, I'm number one. As long as I'm rapping because of what I'm talking about. New Slaves, ain't nobody talking about that. People scared of corporations. People scared of what they gonna lose. That was the most fearless lyrics that have happened since P.E. was out. Ain't nobody in this situation of control by materialism turning up like that. But on this next one, we gonna get in the studio and I'm gonna get you that coach ticket.
The Breakfast Club: Nah, I ain't gonna serve you, man. I ain't gonna serve. I'm just joking, man.
Kanye West: Middle seat, Tim. Middle seat. Middle seat. And they're going to be the middle. I'm going to get you that coach ticket. Last row.
The Breakfast Club: And that hotel room with the bathroom will be real close to the bar and stuff.
Kanye West: To show that you're not materialistic.
The Breakfast Club: Turn over the TV.
The Breakfast Club: If I can be the person in the room that tells you, look, nah, that ain't it, and get him where he needs to be.
The Breakfast Club: Although sometimes you're wrong too, though. Sometimes you're wrong too, but rarely.
The Breakfast Club: We appreciate you joining us today. Kanye West, it's The Breakfast Club. Good morning.
Kanye West: Hey, I love y'all. Thank y'all very much for y'all hate and support.

Event Date: November 26, 2013