Well, Paper is definitely the first magazine to get Kanye and Kim on separate covers in such a short amount of time. As Kim "broke the Internet" by going full frontal for the magazine, Kanye kicks shit off for Paper's April 2015 issue. Obviously, just giving Kanye a cover isn't a story in and of itself. Time went as far as naming 'Ye one of their "100 Most Influential People." But with photography from Jackie Nickerson, who shot the Yeezy Season 1 lookbook, and Kanye writing his own cover story (okay, it's an "as told to," but presented in one long diary-like entry), this is an entirely different editorial animal. I mean, who the fuck gets to write their own cover story? This does not happen often, people.
Much of the story revolves around how Kanye wants to live The American Dream, which he calls a "world dream," but attacks this tried and true struggle differently. He hits on the notion that he wants to be able to give everyone who follows him in the years to come as much information as possible to help them succeed, building off of the many distinct moments in his life when someone showed him a helping hand: Elber Albaz of Lanvin telling him to "keep going," Riccardo Tisci pitching him the idea of wearing a leather kilt on stage and even that time he worked at the Gap in high school.
The entire piece goes on in typical Kanye fashion—a little fluid and stream of consciousness—talking about anything that comes to mind, like how he loved music more 10 years ago, how he's more focused on "innovating" than simply making music, his time living in China when people would wipe their hands on his face to see if the color would come off, mentioning Steve Jobs twice and how the Tidal press conference wasn't an Illuminati moment because the real Illuminati would be energy corporations. That's Kanye for you. Stay woke.
