They Talked About Yeezus: Musicians, Celebrities, and Critics on Kanye West

We were all sitting in the studio and watching all these crazy sketches. Nobody had seen any of this shit before. It was Rick James, all that shit. All on there. We was all cracking up and then in the middle of it all, Kanye’s phone rings.

He answers the phone, he goes, “Hello. Huh? What? Uh uh, I can’t. I can’t. Cause, I’m at Dave Chappelle’s show watching sketches that nobody’s ever seen before." And then he says, “Cause my life is dope, and I do dope shit,” and then he hung up the phone. This is when I knew he was going to be famous.

I recently sat down with 'Ye in New York and got the chance to hear about his hopes and ambitions, his frustrations and contradictions, his happiness and his anger. But through it all, what I felt from Kanye was an artist who desperately wants to leave his imprint in the history books.

What’s often times misunderstood about Kanye is that people believe he wants all of this for himself, in fact, quite the opposite, he wants all of this for the rest of us. He wants to destroy the glass ceiling with 808s and crack music… so one day WE have the power to see all of the lights.

Certainly he wants a piece for himself…everybody would, but at his core, at the bottom of his heart, lies an inner-truth that has led to an external battle to make this world a bit easier for those who have been dealt a hand of struggle, by showing them a glimmer of hope through his art.

(GlobalGrind)

The reunion with Kanye West was very pleasant, I saw an honest being, with a beautiful child-like soul. He puts on a big show. I read him as Tarot. I was surprised by the purity of West, and his deep desire to create work that develops awareness of young people.

(Vulture)

I love him, I think he’s a great guy, super smart. And from a creative standpoint, I can’t think of anyone who has come out, who has been more consistently great from the time they started making music until now, I can’t think of anyone else. I think he’s the most consistently great creative person in music today.

Before I ever got the chance to meet him, Kanye West shaped a lot of what I do, as far as music goes. We always, always, always took the time to listen to Kanye’s music and appreciate it. We'd searched the samples and we'd find out where his inspiration came from, because he has one of the best ears in music, period.

He knows how to recognize great music that’s not his. He knows how to utilize great sounds and great music. So before I met him, I had the utmost respect for Kanye West. I’d even go as far as to say he’s the most influential person, as far as a musician, that I’d ever had in my life.

(MTV)

I’m terrified. I thought he’d think it was a diss [Sheezus], but it’s totally not a diss. I love Kanye, I think he’s brilliant, whether what he’s saying is ridiculous or not.

(NME)

For Kanye to say rape, maybe he needs to spend some time on Rikers Island, you know, go to Rikers for a little while, and then he’ll know what rape is. I don’t get celebrities not understanding that the paparazzi are doing their job.

He’s like my school principal, if the school is pop.

(The Guardian)

The first time I sat down and made a beat with Kanye West, in 2011, that was like the most nerve-wrecking thing ever. He’s a perfectionist. I learned so much just from being in the studio, not even being super-hands-on, but just being around him, you learn a lot.

(BET''s 106 & Park)

I’m a Kanye West fan. I like Kanye West. I like a lot of his old stuff so, you know, it’s not [like I’m not a fan]. But he’s on some bullshit now. He’s on some straight up bullshit. I’m not the only one that thinks this but it’s not even about what other people think. I just know what the fuck I think. Yeah, he’s on some bullshit.

(HipHopDX)

Yeah, he’s a bit impulsive. I would’ve given him a good talking to. He needs to put a lid on it. I do think he’s very talented but he gets confused sometimes.

(Rap-Up)

Kim loved the video, and we didn't hear back from Kanye, so we kind of felt like 'he's not bashing us, but he probably hates it but he's not going to say anything.' But then two weeks ago, we got a call from Kanye. Seth and I were on the phone. We thought he was just going to let us have it. But he loved it! And I'm pretty sure I can say it now because I'm pretty sure it's not going to happen: he wanted us to perform it live the night before his wedding at Versailles.

(DailyMail)

"What do I think of Kanye now? I think he's a very talented guy, and I'd like to see him chill a little bit.”

I don't think Kanye puts out records. He puts out whole things. Like there's projections and there's this show that goes with it, and there's this booklet that goes with it. He's like a prophet. He makes people want to be better.

He's a jackass.

Kanye taught me to never to downplay your ideas. I learned to always stay as creative as possible and never have any boundaries. Those things that people called "rants" on-stage are real conversations that we had behind closed doors—about business and how when you get to a certain level people won't want to see you break through because they only see you as a rapper.

(The Hollywood Reporter)

He’s obviously a talent within our culture and is one of the driving forces of it, but some of that shit is weird to me. That last record [Yeezus], to be honest, I’m not playing it right now. I still play "Flashing Lights," "Gold Digger" and that whole College Dropout project. But some of the new stuff is so creative and feels like he’s trying to create a whole new sound. It sounds scrambled, radio is going to play dance music, EDM—you got a lot of stuff happening in music culture that’s influencing a lot of R&B music to that tempo. It doesn’t feel like hip-hop to me, it feels like a fusion of something else, like a weird combination of dance music sounds and stuff.

(MTV UK)

If Kanye wants to do radio interviews and he doesn’t want the host to talk, he might as well do video blogs. I just want him to calm down and not get high blood pressure. And Kim please, go buy Kanye some chocolates or some flowers, some balloons for Valentine’s, please. He’s acting like a single bitter bitch right now.

When it came to me putting my album out, I was like, "I can’t have an album without Kanye." He has to be a part of it. He’s become my mentor, he gives me advice, he hits me, takes random pictures off-line and says, "Oh this is a good picture of you." He’s really into fashion so he’s a good person to have a well-rounded conversation with.

(HipHopDX)

He was actually very subdued, very quiet, very reverential. He's actually a huge fan of comedy and a huge fan of Anchorman and he kept saying he couldn't believe he was there on set.

Part of the pleasure of editing Vogue, one that lies in a long tradition of this magazine, is being able to feature those who define the culture at any given moment, who stir things up, whose presence in the world shapes the way it looks and influences the way we see it. I think we can all agree on the fact that that role is currently being played by Kim and Kanye to a T. (Or perhaps that should be to a K?).

As for the cover, my opinion is that it is both charming and touching, and it was, I should add, entirely our idea to do it; you may have read that Kanye begged me to put his fiancee on Vogue's cover. He did nothing of the sort […]The gossip might make better reading, but the simple fact of the matter is that it isn't true.

(Us Weekly)

I love Kanye West like a brother & been one of his biggest fans & friends since day 1, but Genius is eternal patience. Kanye West. Real geniuses don’t have to tell everyone that they are a genius. Maybe I should’ve just called him and told him that in private. Oops, my bad! Twitter-stream-of-consciousness LOL. I just got online and saw all these Kanye West interviews and I was inspired to rant. Oh well, going back to Thanksgiving. We cookin’ son!

(MTV UK)

Kanye didn’t have the survival skills that he has to have. Kanye’s built completely different than everyone in Roc-A-Fella. Also, I’m a little tight with Kanye cause he hasn’t reached out to Biggs. I don’t like that shit. So, Kanye holler at me. I don’t like that. It’s terrible…Biggs was the one that really was like ‘Yo Dame, pay attention to what Kanye’s doing. Make sure you send him that music.’ You know what I mean?

He hasn’t checked on his kid. He hasn’t checked on his family. No trial, none of that. And the shit I’m hearing him complain about is irrelevant. Based on the fact that he doesn’t look back to the people that helped him… I gotta have a conversation with him.

Being in the room with 'Ye, he’s very particular about what he wants you to do in the studio. Yes, he listens to me and gets off on the stuff that I’m doing, but he’s very particular about what he wants you to do. But when you come up with some new lyrics or he comes up with a new adlib he is going to beat that up and keep beating it up until that thing makes sense to him. But it’s a lot of fun working with him and seeing him jump around when things are coming to life.

(Vibe)

Kanye is one of the only few people in this industry that I consider a friend. I probably talk to him once a week. We both have a love for art and we hate a lot of the same stuff.

I think we’re both equally—You know, I know they think or they say that the guy usually doesn’t care and just shows up. Kanye really cares and he’s really passionate about it. So, it makes my job so much easier. It makes my job really easy, but I love it 'cause it just—He knows what he wants and I love that about him. We’re kind of taking different roles. Like he’ll take care of the music. I’ll take care of the seating chart. Like different stuff like that. So, we’re making it really easy on each other.

He called me a racist. And I didn’t appreciate it then. I don’t appreciate it now. It’s one thing to say, "I don’t appreciate the way he’s handled his business." It’s another thing to say, "This man’s a racist." I resent it, it’s not true. Five years later I can barely write those words without feeling disgust. I faced a lot of criticism as president. I didn’t like hearing people claim that I lied about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction or cut taxes to benefit the rich. But the suggestion that I was racist because of the response to Katrina represented an all-time low.

(NPR)

It was an excellent conversation for about two hours, and he finally got into his grandiose business ideas. I have some comments to give him. I have been thinking about it since the meeting.

(ABC News)

First of all, I love Kanye West. I've had the good pleasure of knowing him since he was coming up. It is true when he talks about wanting to do this for the last decade, cause I've had those conversations, I think everybody in the industry has had an conversation with 'Ye on trying to break in.

But he is just a bowl of contradiction, you know? I love him but that's kinda what's human about him, because you see the same frustration that dogs all of us waiting for the gate-keeper to let them in. But the thing about Kanye that I don't understand is, why the hell does he need those gate-keepers? Kanye, you don't need those gate-keepers. You have built so much power and love, maybe 50 hate you and 50 hate you but that 50% is big. You don't need Anna Wintour, you don't need Paris, you don't need them.

West is incredible, you know? I mean, the record-making facility, there's a lot of hours in those records. There's just the production. I saw him on television; he did one song called "Blood On The Leaves" on Later With Jools Holland. It was fantastic, he's very talented. I find him very talented. I'm not necessarily driving to it in my car, I probably fall back to the stuff I was listening to as a kid or something if I'm driving around, but I do listen. I listen to a lot because there's so much information in it and it's just fascinating record-making.

(NME)