NY Times somehow managed to get Kanye West to break his ‘no interviews’ policy he’s been sticking to for some time for a feature, ‘Behind Kanye’s Mask’. He speaks on the different stages in his career, his albums and how he now looks at the big incidents such as “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” quote, his mother’s death and the Taylor Swift saga.
Hit the break for an excerpt in which he talks about Yeezus.
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One of the things I thought when I heard the new record was, “This is the anti-‘College Dropout.’ ” It feels like you’re shedding skin. Back then, you were like: “I want more sounds. I want more complicated raps. I want all the things.” At what point did that change?
Architecture — you know, this one Corbusier lamp was like, my greatest inspiration. I lived in Paris in this loft space and recorded in my living room, and it just had the worst acoustics possible, but also the songs had to be super simple, because if you turned up some complicated sound and a track with too much bass, it’s not going to work in that space. This is earlier this year. I would go to museums and just like, the Louvre would have a furniture exhibit, and I visited it like, five times, even privately. And I would go see actual Corbusier homes in real life and just talk about, you know, why did they design it? They did like, the biggest glass panes that had ever been done. Like I say, I’m a minimalist in a rapper’s body. It’s cool to bring all those vibes and then eventually come back to Rick [Rubin], because I would always think about Def Jam.
Full article here – Behind Kanye’s Mask
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