Charlamagne opens the interview by asking Kanye, “Mentally, where are you?” Kanye tells Charlamagne, “I think I’m in a stronger place than I ever was. After the breakdown—or I like to say, the breakthrough.” When asked about what he believes caused the breakdown, Kanye says, “Fear, stress, control, being controlled, manipulation, like being a pawn in a chess piece of life. Stressing things that create, like, validation that I didn’t need to worry about as much.”
Kanye also looks back on meeting President Obama, and being called a “jackass” by the president. “You know, he never called me to apologize. The same person that sat down with me and my mom, I think should’ve communicated to me directly and been like, ‘Yo, Ye, you, you know what it is. I’m in the room and it was just a joke. I just think that we were in a period where he had so much stuff to deal with, he couldn’t deal with a wild card like me, I think that’s too unpredictable. Someone that wasn’t being controlled by strategy and thoughts, but someone who’s acting on feelings.”
From there Kanye goes into a discussion of the Taylor Swift situation.
It’s not that I’m particularly fighting for Beyoncé’s video. It’s every time award show has ever done that. Just fuckin’ with artists. We are H.S.P., highly sensitive people. Artists! That’s what you love about us. So you gon’ line up a whole bunch of artists and put us in some bum-ass suits and shit—idea from, like, 200 years ago. We dressed like we 200 years ago, lined up trying to wait for a gold statue. And you gon’ make us feel like shit? There’s five of us, and four of us gotta go to our restaurant with our friends and be like, “Man, we ain’t win nothin’.” Fuck that. Man, fuck that.
Other topics covered during interview include Beyoncé, JAY-Z, Twitter, and more. Charlamagne brings up JAY’s 4:44 lyrics about giving Ye “20 million without blinkin’.” Kanye replies:
That concept that you gave me, that he gave me the money, that’s what frustrated me because, actually, the money was, he got from Live Nation. He, Roc Nation was managing me at the time. That’s something normal that someone gives someone a touring deal. It was a touring deal! But the fact that it was worded that it came from him, I’m a very loyal, emotional, like, artist person. You know, that made me feel like I owed more than just the money itself, the fact that it came from him. You know, it just put me under a bit more of a kind of controlled situation. It’s like—and I don’t—I’m only acting out of love. I don’t need to be controlled. I just need to be inspired and informed. And I can be the best Ye in that way.
Great interview, they covered it all. Check it out.
