“You tellin’ me people don’t look at Kanye West like the glitch?!” he said in a heated interview with BBC Radio’s Zane Lowe, just over a month ago. His eyes were so red and his voice so full of raspy rage that it was no wonder his water bottle was empty by the end of it. Together, interviewer and interviewee broke into an agitated sweat, struggling to pry apart the phenomenon that is Kanye West – his goals, his ambitions, and his dreams.
Displays of passion have always been commonplace for our college-graduated, heart-broken, fantastical god-friend; but what we saw and heard in this hour-long exchange was something entirely different from the so-called “publicity stunts” of the past (Kanye claims that he’s never done anything for mere publicity). It was something higher, more noble, yet beautifully wretched – somewhere between a tirade and a sermon.
“Rap is the new rock and roll. We are culture. Rap is the new rock and roll. We are the rock stars. It’s been like that for a minute, Hedi Slimane. It’s been like that for a minute. We the biggest rock stars, and I’m the biggest of all of them.”
he said, minutes before saying,
“People think a lot of my motivation is very megalomaniac and self-oriented. To the contrary completely. I just want to help.”
There’s disparity between the two quotes at first glance, but you have to give it to the guy. He threw himself out there. Every piece. He gave us the Kanye West everyone wanted to know, but doesn’t want to believe. He is as unafraid of flaunting his “Versace! Versaci! Versace!” or “Lamborghini Mercy” in person as he is on record – and he’s not afraid to admit it! But it should come as no surprise that at his core, the core so elegiacally revealed in this conversation, he’s dynamic, he’s emotional, he’s intelligent, he’s loving, hating, caring, fearing, he’s…just like us.
He’s a human being, a very ambitious one at that. Love it or hate it, he does it for us. Yes, we do look at him like the glitch, whether or not we care to admit it. He is similar in emotion, but so different in perception. He is an artist, and he is a mole for art, disguising his inner dreamer with a gold chain and some fancy bottom teeth. Of course, we have to see something broken in him; because he is so different, but so the same. It was the most astonishing takeaway from the interview: the realization of such an uncommon man as Kanye directly identifying with the common.
“If you a fan of Kanye West, you a fan of yourself.” There is much more to this statement than meets the eye. Certainly, Kanye works for everyone, and wishes them well (we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt); but what we, as Kanye fans (I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt), can interpret is that we are all in this together – Kanye included. Kanye’s made clear that he wants to be his own boss (and who doesn’t?). He wants to get on Jay-Z’s level (and, come on, who doesn’t?). But he still has people snapping at his heels, telling him what to do, where to go, and what time of the day to piss! He’s in agony from it! And can we not empathize with him?
Certainly, we can! We all want to be the glitch! And we are only afraid of stepping out of bounds, because we are afraid of getting funny looks! Kanye isn’t so hysterical. His portrait goes unspoken, but clearly stated. He worries that the industry wants to own him, providing that he can’t so much as wiggle a feather in any direction apart from music; and even when typical music derails into other, less-familiar themes, his records go unplayed or severely criticized. But he’s an artist! He wants to create! It doesn’t matter how! He just wants to create! And he’s doing it (allegedly) for his fans!
There is an anxious tension there, in that someone so eclectic can be reduced to something so simple. He has ambition. He wants to build, literally and figuratively. He wants nothing more than to explore, and does not want to be held back. He is a man close to the top, warning us of what it looks like from up there. There are still limits, but, he reminds us, only if we adhere to them.
“I always feel like I can do anything. That’s the main thing people are controlled by: thoughts and perceptions of yourself… If you’re taught you can’t do anything, you won’t do anything.”
In spite of every effort to produce not only music, but fashion (specifically, men’s footwear), architecture, and much else, beneath every difficult-to-pronounce brand and dining experience, Kanye still somehow feels a dead end approaching. But he does not call it a dead end. He does not believe in it. “My Truman Show boat has hit the wall!” he says, but with more aggression than desperation, ready to plow through it. He is a man on a mission, and his “Truman Show wall” is paper-thin.
Watch the full interview here (four parts):
EXIT 77b 