Kanye West Speaks On His New Album, Destroying Exclusivity & "The Ye Button" With Zane Lowe

Kanye West's second interview with Zane Lowe lived up to the hype.

BYTrevor Smith
Link Copied to Clipboard!
13.8K Views
John Parra/Getty Images

We just heard Kanye West's new interview with Zane Lowe for BBC 1, and as expected it was full of inspirational, passionate, and hilarious moments. The most surprising moment came when Kanye spoke of his last conversation with fashion instructor Louise Wilson before her death, which caused him to nearly break down in tears, something that-- by his own admission --he'd never done in an interview before. 

Kanye had some interesting things to say about the musical fusion he created with Paul McCartney, desytroying the concept of "exclusivity", and hitting "the Ye button" on people who play games with him.

Read some quotes from the interview below.

On exclusivity:
Exclusivity is the new 'N' word. 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 the mentality of a generation. It wouldn't matter if I sold one sweatshirt, as long as this interview gets done, and kids hear this and know this.

On expressing himself:
I was using the wrong words. I was getting the drink thrown in my face, as opposed to leaving with the girl at the end of the night. Think about the kind of wild shit I used to say in interviews, and imagine if someone said this very thing to a girl at a bar. 'Yo, what up baby, I'm a genius!'"... I was like the 40 Year Old Virgin of corporations. I did not know how to communicate art all. My message was simply; your egg, my semen, we change the world.

On shooting "Blessed with Drake & Big Sean:
I couldn't have been happier, to go and shoot this video with two of the hottest rappers in the game. Well, let's be respectful and truthful, THE hottest rapper, and one of the hottest rappers, and I fall somewhere in that field. 

On his new album:
Just working hard on it, and it's fun. We're being inventive, and I've 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 album came out of a fight to want to design.

On being liked, and "The Ye button":
I didn't come here to be liked. I came here to make a difference. Some people's job, they're extremely likeable, and I think I could figure that out. Everyone I meet, I'm extremely nice, but as soon as people start playing games, I stop, and at many moment, I can hit that Ye button, and we can go right back to day one.

On musical fusion in "FourFiveSeconds":
The whole cadence was Trap. As soon as Paul starts playing, I start singing in Trap. Fusion is the future. The mixing of ideas, the two lunch tables working together. Humanity, we're on people. 

On his last conversation with Louise Wilson:
Last time I saw her, I think she knew that she was gonna pass. She said, so many students, they don't give it their all, and as soon as they do anything halfway good, when they're 2 or 3 years old, their parents clap. She looked at me and said, Kanye, don't clap.


Gallery #1

Kanye West Speaks On His New Album, Destroying Exclusivity & "The Ye Button" With Zane Lowe
  • Link Copied to Clipboard!
About The Author
<b>Features &amp; News Writer</b> <!--BR--> Trevor is a music writer currently based in Montreal. Follow him on <a href="https://twitter.com/trevsmith_" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a>.