Kanye West opened up about his feelings when it comes to some of the biggest things in the tech industry while at Cannes for a seminar entitled "Technology, Culture, and Consumer Adoption: Learning to Read the Cultural Landscape."
While Kanye's name might not be as synonymous with tech as, say, Zuckerberg or Jobs, it doesn't make him any less opinionated.
On Steve Jobs:
"Steve Jobs, as everyone knows, was my biggest influence. Just seeing the way he fought to make things easier for people. After he passed, I made it my life's mission to do what he did inside of that company," West said. "I dream to help raise the palette and raise the taste level of a generation and also be involved with the production and distribution and advertising of that thing everyone's begging for."
On Samsung:
"There would have been no Beats deal without the Samsung deal. It showed the No. 1 company the importance of connecting with culture," said West. "The reason I said I didn't like Samsung particularly is because throughout my entire life, because of how my parents raised me, I have to work with the No. 1. I can't work with anyone but Jay Z, because he's No. 1. I can't be with any girl but Kim, because that's the girl whose pictures I look at the most and get turned on by. I'm not going to represent any company but Louis Vuitton, because that's No. 1. … Samsung is not quite Apple, but it showed that Jimmy [Iovine] and Dre would be able to connect with the No. 1 influencers."
On Beats:
"Apple was so profound at making great products in great design language," he said. "And yet they found themselves culturally susceptible to another brand whose products weren't necessarily as great at that time. Samsung used culture as a way to get into the conversation. And that's why the Apple/Beats deal makes sense. Whatever Samsung is doing culturally, Apple has the 800-pound gorilla in Beats and Jimmy and Dre."
On Instagram and the Internet:
"The world as a whole is fucking ugly. The Internet as a whole is fucking ugly, too. But I'm not in the construction business," he said. "I said to Kevin [Systrom], why don't you let us redo Instagram? Now, you know, Instagram is nice. It's nice looking. I'm not knocking it. But just in general, everyone spends all of their time looking at their screens or their phones. And just as a simple task, we could clean that up.
And now the one of the things that people are getting from West's words is that it's time to switch from Samsung to Apple:
*Throws my phone away & spend my next check on an iPhone* RT @TeamKanyeDaily: Kanye says he is not a fan of Samsung. http://t.co/0aVoyTa4wt
Switching back to iPhone tomorrow RT @TeamKanyeDaily: Kanye says he is not a fan of Samsung. http://t.co/M4S1K5HXBy
My S4 breaking was a blessing in disguise RT @TeamKanyeDaily: Kanye says he is not a fan of Samsung. http://t.co/BmIvZ1YURB
[via AdWeek]
