Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign had quite an in-depth conversation with Big Boy following their Rolling Loud performance in Los Angeles.
On Friday, the Vultures 1 duo tapped in with the legendary radio host and spoke for over an hour about several topics, including their joint album, the state of the music industry, Ye's daughter North potentially pursuing a rap career, and more.
Ye and Ty are deep into a promotional run for the Vultures 1 album. The project debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart for two consecutive weeks. The next album in the reported Vultures trilogy was scheduled to arrive last week but had been delayed with no update as of press time.
Here are 10 things we learned from Kanye and Ty Dolla Sign's interview with Big Boy.
Ye opens up about his feelings on religion: "Them prayers ain't working"
The Chicago rap legend fully embraced Christianity on his previous albums Jesus Is King and Donda, as well as in past songs like "Jesus Walks." However, in the wake of his Vultures 1 project, which features explicit lyrics and content, Ye stated that he has "issues with Jesus" and claimed that the act of praying is one of his biggest grievances with religion, as he doesn't believe it works when asking or hoping for a desired result.
"You know, I have my issues with Jesus," Ye said. "There's a lot of stuff I went through that I prayed and I ain't see Jesus show up."
He continued, "The main thing that really that I don't rock with is it's just always like, 'I'mma pray for you.' And it's just like, you can actually physically do something yourself too, more than just pray. We're so in this mentality that that's all that needs to happen but we ain't praying our way out of prison. We ain't praying our way out the abortion clinics. We ain't praying our way to get our land back that was always ours after gentrification, after the Harlem Renaissance and Black Wall Street was burned to the ground. Them prayers ain't working."
Ye credits himself with influencing Drake, Future, Young Thug, and "every style of music of the past 20 years"
According to Ye, the last 20 years of hip-hop and R&B has been a result of his influence on music. He claimed he directly influenced some of the biggest names in the industry with his groundbreaking 2008 album, 808's & Heartbreaks.
"I invented every style of music of the past 20 years. I created the genre," said Ye. "I created Weeknd's genre. Trav, Drake, everybody. I'mma go ahead and say with all love, Future and Thug also because the auto-tune album, 808s. Everybody thinks about Trav, Weeknd, and Drake but no one thinks about Future and Thug also. The auto-tune album. Now everyone, they added whatever it was to it. But here's a new genre. It's called making your own money genre. This music is called, like, take that middle man out."
Ye says he feels like his late mom, Donda, speaks through North West
Ye had an extremely close relationship with his mother Donda West before she passed away in November 2007 from complications of cosmetic surgery. Fans saw their close relationship in the Netflix documentary jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, where Donda gave Kanye general advice on his music and life . According to Ye, he was in Italy with his daughter, North, and asked what she thought of the song "Back to Me." North gave her opinion on the music, just like her grandmother would occasionally do, and Ye feels his mother is talking to him through his oldest child.
"Sometimes I feel like my mom speaks through her," said Ye as he explained North gave her opinion on the track. "'It's a good song; this is just a banger like you gotta say what you feel.'"
Ye feels the 2009 VMAs incident with Taylor Swift made the music industry "turn that boy down."
One of Ye's most controversial moments came at the 2009 VMAs when he went onstage as Taylor Swift was accepting the award for Best Video by a Female Artist and interrupted her to say, "I'mma let you finish, but BeyoncĂŠ had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!"
In the interview with Big Boy, Ye reflected on the personal and professional issues he and Ty went through making Vultures 1. The album went No. 1 and he said he reached out to a few people to ask if Universal Music Group was trying to keep his music from having chart success because of the past VMAs incident.
"When it went No. 1, I called up some people I know like 'You think Universal was capping my albums ever since the Taylor Swift moment?' And no one could deny that was happening," said Ye before he explained how the record label allegedly tried to shut him out. "Just limit him. Turn it down, turn that boy down. That boy that went on stage and said BeyoncĂŠ had the best video? Turn that down. 'All of the Lights' is like No. 28. 'All of the Lights?' 'Runaway,' you know, 'N***as in Paris' was not a No. 1 record."
Ye wakes up "surprised to be alive" because of all the threats he gets over his behavior
Kanye has faced criticism over the years for his controversial behavior, most recently from the Black and Jewish communities, stemming from actions like his support for former president Donald Trump and instances of spewing antisemitic rhetoric. According to Kanye himself, he has received numerous threats and finds it hard to believe he's still alive.
"My life has been threatened," he said. "I wake up every day just surprised to be alive because of how many threats I've receivedâfrom political to Twitter commentary, to all that."
Ty Dolla Sign had nothing to do with Vultures 1 cover
The official cover art for Vultures 1 features Ye wearing an all-black outfit with a hockey mask and standing next to his wife, Bianca Censori who is showing her back to the camera while her nude butt is covered with a piece of black cloth. Ty Dolla Sign is not on the cover, and as he explained to Big Boy, he wasn't involved in making it.
"Shit man, I didn't even make the cover of Vultures 1," Ty said while laughing with Ye and Big Boy. The Chicago native then explained that Ty was fine with the artwork even if they didn't have a concept ready for the next album in the Vultures trilogy series. They eventually found out what the cover would be, which is Ty wearing a mask and holding a picture of his brother TC, who's incarcerated.
Ye wanted to make Vultures 1 a clean album with no curses, but Ty Dolla Sign convinced him not to
For Vultures 1, Ye had an idea of making Vultures 1 free of curse words as he's done in the past with Jesus Is King and Donda. However, Ty wasn't feeling that and wanted Ye to keep all the profanity-laced lyrics on the album.
"I tried to remove the cursing a bunch of times," said Ye. "I was like, 'So what do you think we make this all clean?' [Ty's] like [nods head], 'Not this one.'"
Ty Dolla Sign wasn't afraid of sticking by Ye throughout the controversy
Ye made headlines in the last few years for making antisemitic comments, which caused several companies to sever ties with him, including Adidas and Gap. Ty explained that he didn't think twice about joining forces with his controversial Vultures 1 collaborator, as he claimed Ye would be back in the public's good graces eventually.
"Nah, man, I always saw just watching him as a fan, going to the top, doing something to come down here doing it again," said Ty. "And every time you go back to the top, everybody starts sucking dick again. So I already knew it was gonna happen again. And now I'm swinging my dick."
Ty Dolla Sign says working with Ye was tough because he kept changing the songs
Ye has a history of constantly changing songs during the album-making process and that was no different with Vultures 1, according to Ty Dolla Sign. The West Coast native said there were songs he thought were already completed, but Ye would always change it and have a completely different song than what Ty had last heard.
"I'll come with a song and as far as I'm concerned the song will be fully done and he'll come back man and change that s**t like 20 times," Ty said. "Like it go from like a dance music song to 'Back to Me.' Like, if you woulda heard the first 'Back to Me', it was like completely different."
Ty Dolla Sign reveals what to expect from Vultures 2 and Vultures 3 while criticizing rappers who aren't original
Vultures 1 is the first part of a trilogy for Ye and Ty Dolla Sign. Vultures 2 is reportedly coming sometime this month, while Vultures 3 will arrive in April. According to Ty, the next two albums will offer a different sound, distinct from what fans have already heard, and urged other rappers to strive for greater originality.
"That's what the goal is for Vultures 2 and Vultures 3, always elevating," said Ty. "Like if you ask me the question what I think about music, I feel like I don't wanna diss anybody, but at the same time, you n***as gotta get better. People always copy the next shit. It's like so many, like 10 songs are the same thing of each different type of beat."
