Transcript: Kanye West appears on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien"
Conan O'Brien: All right everybody, we're back. My first guest tonight is a 10 time Grammy award-winning recording artist. His new album 808s & Heartbreaks is in stores right now. Please welcome the Louis Vuitton Don, Kanye West.
Conan O'Brien: Thanks for being here.
Kanye West: Thank you for having me.
Conan O'Brien: You look fantastic as always. This is a heart made of Legos, is that right?
Kanye West: Correct.
Conan O'Brien: Yeah, very cool. The Louis Vuitton Don. I gotta say, one of the things that immediately just grabs attention is you are fearless when it comes to fashion. You're just not afraid. You seem to, I mean, a lot of people are insecure about it. They don't know what to do, but you will just do something, you'll put something on, and by the definition that you've put it on, it becomes kind of cool. You know what I mean?
Kanye West: I think you're setting me up to show some really uncool stuff that I put on.
Conan O'Brien: No, no, no. I would never do that. That would never happen on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. All right. Let's take a look at this first photo. That is not uncool. I think that looks, that's great. What are these? These are sort of Venetian blind shades. Did you find those? Was that your concept? Did you see them someplace?
Kanye West: I was inspired by some Shades from the 80s and I wanted to bring them back. That was the most exciting moment for me when I saw it just penetrate culture like that. When I saw them get bootlegged, it was like the closest to a Michael Jackson moment.
Conan O'Brien: Yes, because yeah, I mean, you put those on, suddenly everyone was putting them on. I had them for a while and was wearing them. It didn't do the same thing for me. It just doesn't. It works when you do it, it doesn't work when everybody does it. We have another photo here, let's take a quick look.
Kanye West: I honestly don't even know what's happening here.
Conan O'Brien: First of all, where did you, what is this outfit? It looks like sort of a 60s beekeepers outfit. What exactly is it?
Kanye West: Well, that's the Warrior hoodie from my line from Pastel, which, you know, it looks a bit more normal when you don't have it all the way zipped up. That's just an option in case you want to, like, rob someone or something.
Conan O'Brien: You'd be easy to spot later on though.
Kanye West: It wasn't me.
Conan O'Brien: Okay, so you zip that up all the way. That would get hot, but it's cool. And you actually, that's part of your line, is that right?
Kanye West: Yeah.
Conan O'Brien: What's it called?
Kanye West: Pastel.
Conan O'Brien: Pastel. All right, and we have another one. Let's take a look at this. Now this, this is like, it's sort of like hinting at an Urkel thing, but it looks good. Do you know what I mean? It looks cool.
Kanye West: Except for I'm just extremely greasy looking. I don't know what it is.
Conan O'Brien: Is that part of it?
Kanye West: That was not intentional, I don't know.
Conan O'Brien: Yeah, but you clearly don't worry about it. It's clearly been something, you like this your whole life, you just, you know, as a kid.
Kanye West: Yeah, I picked out my outfit.
Conan O'Brien: I mean, kids are famously worried about, I want to wear what everybody else is wearing so I look cool, but were you like that or were you different?
Kanye West: That's what people are like now. They want to wear what everyone else is wearing. But I picked out my outfit in kindergarten.
Conan O'Brien: Really? You would say, I'm wearing this.
Kanye West: This is what I'm wearing. I'm wearing rubber ducky boots or whatever it was as a kindergartener that you want to wear.
Conan O'Brien: Right, right. But I think that's neat. That's just confidence you were born with. You always had that confidence.
Kanye West: Yeah, in a way.
Conan O'Brien: Yeah. I want to ask you about the several famous incidents, one just recently you had with the paparazzi, where you get into a bit of a scuffle with these guys. What's happening?
Kanye West: Well... I put my hand up to stop him from taking a picture and I guess in all the commotion the camera must have
His new album 808s & Heartbreaks on Late Night.
But the thing about the paparazzi is the law hasn't caught up to the technology of the internet, you know, so it's like all these people are going out just buying cameras trying to
Grab the camera.
Conan O'Brien: That just happens. And you don't expect that to happen with a celebrity, because you think that we're like a museum animal and stuff. But it's like, don't shoot the animals then, maybe.
Kanye West: I don't know.
Conan O'Brien: Well, what's interesting though, the problem is that once you do something like that, the word's out and these guys know that a shot of you losing your temper is worth 10 times more than a shot of you remaining calm. So it's kind of a no-win situation a little bit.
Kanye West: Well, except for the fact that I'm going to do something about it. I'm going to make a change, and I think it's my responsibility. My mom, she got arrested for being in the sit-ins at age six. My grandfather drove the first car in the marches leading out of Oklahoma. My father was an activist. So I think they just messed with the wrong celebrity just now.
Conan O'Brien: Right, right. Okay, so you're letting them know.
Kanye West: Leave me alone. I would suggest it, but I'm going to take the responsibility, even if they never take another picture of me, I'm going to take the responsibility to say, okay, look, at a red carpet event, there should be, you know, photographers. If you go to a basketball game, there'll be a sign that says all these pictures are public domain. It can be used at the photographer's discretion, you know?
Conan O'Brien: Let's talk a little bit about, because I don't want to spend all the time talking about that, I want to talk about your work. You've had phenomenal success, your recording career, your stage show. I want to talk about that. When you put on a stage show, there's a theatrics to the stage show, which I think is fantastic. A lot of time and money goes into concepts, staging. I'm talking about rocket ships sort of telling a story using expensive scenery, lights, and it almost feels like it's harkening back to something that hasn't been around for a while. And it's pretty impressive. Was this something that you decided, I wanna do this when I become a recording star, I wanna bring this kind of theatricality back to music?
Kanye West: I didn't know I was going to do that. I just had an epiphany one day before we went on tour, like about a month and a half before we were supposed to hit the road. I completely changed the entire set design. I was inspired by going to fashion shows in Paris where I would see just one person walking down the runway with this big installation behind him. I thought it was just so iconic and dramatic and I wanted to do that. I wanted to be on stage by myself, but then I decided to create a storyline around it. And then we did matte paintings for the skies. And I connected with the same guys that did, this guy Martin that did the Daft Punk tour, which was like the best show I ever seen in my life. And we just pushed the envelope. Past rap music, people would say that's the best rap show, and I'm trying to push past just rap. I want people to know that I'm giving the best show possible. Like years from now, people are going to tell their kids about, you know, the Kanye West show.
Conan O'Brien: All right. Well, we have also the music itself. You're using new technology. You're using some technology that's been around for a while, but you're actually incorporating it into the music itself, which is on the record, you use something called an audio processor and it's something that you've started to use and you're pioneering something. Tell us what the audio processor does.
Kanye West: Well, I can say that I did pioneer that in the urban world because I used it on The College Dropout. But actually more known for it is T-Pain. Who gets full credit for it. He's a very talented artist. But it's something that people, I get a lot of backlash for using it. Because it's a tool that people use when they can't sing.
Conan O'Brien: And what it does is if they sing off-key, it puts them back on key instantly, is that right?
Kanye West: No, actually what it does for me is if I sing off-key, it really points that out. I used it because I like the electronic feel. I like the sound. I want to juxtapose taiko drums and monk choirs with autotune. I deliver music like it's art. I feel like I'm a pop artist. Sidebar, I had to use the bathroom really, really bad and they didn't give me enough time. I just wanted to tell you that.
Conan O'Brien: You need to use the bathroom now. It's blended so much into what you were talking about. But I thought you had to use the bathroom then.
Kanye West: I have to use the bathroom really bad right now, this entire interview.
Conan O'Brien: Yeah, that's okay. It's added a sense of urgency to what you're saying, which I think is valuable. But yes. We're gonna get you to the bathroom in just seconds. It's just, I have to do this. Okay. Your sound guy, just to show us what the audio processor was, he set it up for us on this microphone. Would you tell me how to use it? Would it work if I...
Kanye West: I think if you talk directly into it, yeah.
Conan O'Brien: But if I... Speak, it doesn't really do anything, right? But if I sing, it'll do something to my voice, is that right?
Kanye West: You don't care, you just have to go to the bathroom.
Conan O'Brien: What do I have to sing? Should I sing something high? [Starts singing high-pitched note] Should I try and sing something high? Does that come in?
Kanye West: Any chance you're gonna sample that on a future record?
Conan O'Brien: I think that's... I think that would be too expensive to clear. Yeah, yeah. I think that was very polite way of saying buzz off. All right. You have to use the bathroom, and I'm a good host. I'm gonna get you to the bathroom right now. 808s & Heartbreaks is in stores right now. Kanye, you're coming back later in the show to perform.
Kanye West: Yes.
Conan O'Brien: And thank you very much for doing that. We'll take a break. When we come back, Seth MacFarlane from The Family Guy is here. Thank you.
Conan O'Brien: All right everybody, we're back here with a song from his brand new album 808s & Heartbreaks. It's the one and only Kanye West.
Kanye West: [Singing Heartless]
Conan O'Brien: Hey, thank you so much. Thank you. That was great. Kanye West, have another great time. We'll be right back.
Event Date: November 25, 2008