First they love him, then they hate him, then they love him again.
No celebrity has lived that mantra better than Kanye West. While always respected as one of music’s greatest artists and producers, he became one of pop culture’s biggest “jackasses” after the Taylor Swift and “How Sway?” incidents. Now, he’s launched a successful clothing line with Adidas and a popular new single. All signs point to ‘Ye working his way back towards becoming the people’s favorite.
In a new interview with T Magazine, the New York Times style publication, the “All Day” rapper continues to show a new side as he talks more about (kind of) ditching his larger than Yeezus ego. He’s even enrolled in anger management. He also refers to himself as an activist rather than a celebrity, and of course, he touches on his influence in fashion – all while giving us few classic lines as Kanye usually does.
Check out 10 of the best quotes below.
On his outspoken behavior:
“I’m not a celebrity, I’m an activist. The fact that when I see truth it’s really hard for me to sit back and just allow it to happen in front of me on my clock makes me, a lot of times, a bad celebrity.”
On his infamous “visionary streams of consciousness:”
“They classify my motivational speeches as rants!”
On his aspirations in fashion:
“[I want to build] the biggest apparel company in human history.”
On classism in fashion:
“Before the Internet, music was really expensive. People would use a rack of CDs to show class, to show they had made it,” West said at one point. “Right now, people use clothes to telegraph that. I want to destroy that. The very thing that supposedly made me special — the jacket that no one could get, the direct communications with the designers — I want to give that to the world.”
On wearing expensive designer clothing:
He claims that he’s not wearing luxury for luxury’s sake but rather as a form of research. “There’s a transition,” he says. “I need to partake in what’s of value and of quality and soul in order to understand it, in order to give it back.”
On his ego:
“I have this table in my new house,” West said, offering a parable. “They put this table in without asking. It was some weird nouveau riche marble table, and I hated it. But it was literally so heavy that it took a crane to move it. We would try to set up different things around it, but it never really worked. I realized that table was my ego. No matter what you put around it, under it, no matter who photographed it, the douchebaggery would always come through.”
On his personal style:
“I want to dress like a child as much as possible.”
On going into debt with his first women’s clothing line:
“I gained because I had the privilege to be educated,” he now says. “I had enough of a value to be able to go into debt, and that was a blessing. Some people don’t even have the opportunity to be able to go into debt.”
On how Kim and North have influenced him:
“I feel like now I have an amazing wife, a super smart child and the opportunity to create in two major fields,” he said. “Before I had those outlets, my ego was all I had.”
On the photo of him meeting Ralph Lauren at New York Fashion Week:
“Do you know what he said when he did that? ‘This is my son,’” West said. “And I was thinking, ‘I knew it! I knew Ralph was my daddy!’ ”
For the full interview, click here.
SOURCE: T Magazine | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
