Kanye West Sheds Tears, Calls Drake the 'Hottest Rapper' in Zane Lowe Interview
After their infamous 2013 interview, Kanye West reunited with BBC Radio 1 host Zane Lowe. During the 45-minute sit-down conversation, Yeezus shed some tears for a fallen friend and reflected on the past year-and-a-half and his newest endeavors including his Yeezy line with adidas, his new album, and working with Paul McCartney.
He revealed that he never released his Cruel Summer film online because it could not be experienced on seven screens.
His goal has always been to bring power to the masses. “This is what I fought for. None of this was about me having like a bigger house, a faster Lamborghini. It was about these kids having a moment to be themselves, to be a stronger version of themselves. I make this stuff to empower people.”
His adidas x Yeezy line will remain high-priced and exclusive for now. “I want to apologize to everyone right now because I believe that season one might still be in that upper price point. There’s still the words exclusivity being thrown around. Exclusivity is the new N-word. Not ni**a. ‘Cause nothing should be exclusive. Everyone should have an opportunity to drink from the same fountain. The idea of exclusivity is a new colored people fountain concept. We have to reboot our mentality of a generation.”
He revealed that a video for “Blessings” with Big Sean and Drake has been shot. “I couldn’t have been happier to go and shoot this video with two of the hottest rappers in the game.”
He praised Drake, adding, “Let’s be respectable and truthful, the hottest rapper and one of the hottest rappers in the game, and I fall somewhere in that field.”
He is working hard on his new album and having fun. “We’re being inventive and I still got a lot of opinions and perspectives that I think are important and can be inspiring to people, that fight. The College Dropout came out of a fight to want to rap and this new album’s coming out of a fight to want to design.”
He was honored to work with Paul McCartney. “Meeting Paul McCartney was like meeting Ralph Lauren. The greatest of their field, period. Of all time. Soon as Paul starts playing [on ‘FourFiveSeconds’], I start singing in trap.”
At one point, he got emotional while describing his friendship with British professor of fashion design, Louise Wilson. “Louise Wilson was the baddest professor of all time, of any fashion school ever. Notorious for not letting people stop at a seven or an eight. Pushing people to a 12.”
She gave him some words of advice. “She said, ‘So many students, they don’t give it their all.’ And the problem is, soon as they do anything halfway good, when they’re two years old, three years old, their parents clap. And she just looked at me and she said, ‘Kanye, don’t clap.'”
He broke down in tears as he remembered his late friend. “I didn’t know we were going to lose her,” he said. “She said, ‘Thank you for the time we came to performance and this has really meant a lot to me.'”
Watch the emotional interview below.