10 Questions We Have About Kanye West's 'W' Magazine Interview
Kanye West granted a rare interview to W magazine while still recording Yeezus in his Parisian loft. The 4,000-word piece entitled "Kanye West: The Transformer" is, as you'd expect, loaded with stories, family and friends dropping in and references to both high- and low-art. But it also teases the rapper's numerous quotables and future plans that must be delved into further. The whole thing is worth a read, but here are 10 questions we have after reading:
1. We’re told that, "Late at night, thumping hip-hop beats have been emanating from a loftlike apartment within the building, occasionally provoking complaints from the neighbors." How far did this go? Were police called? Did Kanye tell them, "You can’t arrest God. God arrests you" before placing custom-made, French handcuffs on them?
2. "He’s plotting to create operas, stores, films, product packaging, amusement parks, and, possibly, entire cities." Can you imagine Kanye playing The Sims and just making Kanyetropolis, filled with hundreds of thousands of lil’ Kanyes? What will a Kanye amusement park look like? Roller coasters that refuse to descend? A Tunnel of Love Me? A Kanye-kaze? Discuss.
3. "He plays [Kim Kardashian's mom Kris Jenner] some of his unfinished songs, including 'Awesome,' which is clearly about Kim." What was Jenner's most wince-inducing line?
a. "I'm gon cook, you'll be dessert"
b. "I know you must be tired/From running through my mind/Can I come inside?"
4. "West goes even further, favorably comparing himself to Le Corbusier, the Beatles, Marlon Brando, Tiger Woods, Azzedine Alaïa, Kate Moss, and the Soup Nazi, among others." How is he like the Beatles? How is he like the Soup Nazi? How you gonna drop lines like that without further context?! Does he actually still use the phrase, "No soup for you" like some corny, trapped-in-the-90s dad or does he just get mad when Kim steals his recipe for mulligatawny?
5. "'Man, I'm the No. 1 living and breathing rock star. I am Axl Rose; I am Jim Morrison; I am Jimi Hendrix.' West is not smiling as he says this, and his voice is getting louder with each sentence." Does Kanye think Axl Rose is dead?
6. "Visits with the Kardashians have been punctuated by the arrivals of people like the haute-minimalist architect Joseph Dirand and the Belgian interior designer and antiques guru Axel Vervoordt, along with deliverymen hauling in West’s latest purchases: rare Le Corbusier lamps, Pierre Jeanneret chairs, and obscure body-art journals from Switzerland." Can you describe these "obscure body-art journals"? What’s in them? What is obscure: the journals or the body parts? (or both?!)
7. "As usual, there are several collaborators, friends, and minions milling around his living room studio, including the producer No I.D. and the Canadian rapper the Weeknd." Why are you calling the Weeknd a rapper?
8. "But given West’s current thirst for refined Euro cool, one might expect him to fall for some chicly cerebral French artist rather than a trash-TV queen who epitomizes the kind of branded mass culture he’s rebelling against." How many stairs will Kanye's goon squad throw writer Christopher Bagley down for this line?
9. "We weave through highway traffic as West makes calls about an upcoming Jetsons movie on which, he tells me, he is creative director." This has been rumored, but I guess is now confirmed, eh? But the film’s producer told Vulture in 2012 that, "There is no such thing on a movie." Did Kanye just make up a role so he could work on the film? Does he know working on a movie about the future doesn't actually take him there?
10. "God’s little practical joke on me—as an intellect who doesn’t like to read a lot—is like, I’ll say some superphilosophical sh-t, but I’ll say it the wrong way," he says, laughing. "I’ll use the wrong word, so it goes from being really special to completely retarded." How can God talk about God?
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