The Kanye West rants never get old. (Well, almost never.) Most of them leans toward convoluted comparisons between him and music (or otherwise) greats and diatribes about how the music industry continues to set up roadblocks based on the color of his skin. This month’s Kanye rant proves no different.
In a recent interview with “12 Years a Slave” director Steve McQueen, for Interview magazine, West preaches ad nauseam about the usual topics: his greatness, race, his greatness, how he feels marginalized by his Grammy nominations this year, etc.
“I think that when I compare myself to Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Howard Hughes or whoever, it’s because I’m trying to give people a little bit of context to the possibilities that are in front of me, as opposed to putting me in the rap category that the Grammys has put me in,” he said. “In no way do I want to be the next any one of them. But I am the first me.”
West mentioned that he’s, “like a broadcaster for futurism, for dreamers, for people who believe in themselves. We’ve been taught since day one to stop believing in our own dreams. We’ve had the confidence beaten out of us since day one, and then sold back to us through branding and diamond rings and songs and melodies – through these lines that we have to walk inside of so as to not break the uniform or look silly or be laughed at. So I hope that there are people out there laughing. Laugh loud, please. Laugh until your lungs give out, because I will have the last laugh.”
Although the interview touches on a number of interesting subjects, McQueen fails to challenge West on any of them. Maybe that’s why Kanye has become less and less eager to do interviews with journalists and instead taken up more conversations with pop culture luminaries like McQueen. You would think that McQueen, who’s just directed a film exploring the horrors of the slave trade in America, would have something to say about Yeezy likening his relationship with the fashion industry to a form of slavery.
