Some people believe that Kanye West is a madman. Some people believe he’s a genius. I sort of believe he’s both. He’s both crazy and brilliant, defiantly eccentric, and possibly/probably chemically imbalanced. Kanye goes Full Kanye in a new W Magazine cover story for their October issue (which features multiple covers). The funniest part is that after basically ranting about Wreck-It Ralph, Elf and the fashion industry for four pages, W Magazine included this line at the end: “This is an excerpt from a longer interview and it was edited and condensed for clarity.” Hahaha!!! The poor bastard who had to transcribe this mess… we need to buy that person a drink. You can read Peak Kanye here, and here are some highlights:
When he first started caring about fashion: “I just liked picking out my own outfit for kindergarten. Now my daughter definitely picks out her own outfits and she will lay it down and look at it and say, ‘This is not great.’ And then she tries to tell me what to wear and what she likes out of the closet, like just my mom being in a fur store and me picking one and saying, ‘I like this one mom,’ and her looking at the price and it being the most expensive one. So, I think that’s where I got the expensive taste from.”
His debt: “This year I literally tweeted after doing a fashion show, ‘Hey, I’m $53 million in debt and people say, ‘I can’t understand that. That sounds like MC Hammer where we don’t relate to that.’ It’s not for you to relate to that…the people who know what the f–k I’m talking about know what the f–k I’m talking about. So I refuse people who write me off as some rich kid taking a hobby, fashion as a f–king hobby or a fashion plate. How could you even dare to think that, that you’re on the same level of this, blah, blah, blah?”
Art & education: “And the entire time, no one, um – very few people even knew that I have a f–king Ph.D. in art, you know? And not that that would even make the difference, but me saying that makes the difference to the exact people I’m talking to it’s, like, shut the f–k up. I will f–king laser you with alien f–king eyes and explode your f–king head. Shut the f–k up – try to write a rap. Okay then. I made this f–king T-shirt, now shut up. And it cost me everything I had and I gave everything I had.
He’s like the elf in Elf: “No, I’m the elf that’s Will Ferrell, that’s too big for his hands to make the toys…But he wants to make the toys. Why? Not just so he could play with them, but he wants to bring joy to the world. I am a creator and it’s my responsibility. There is no amount of money, like as I tell my managers right now, ‘What is your opinion of success?’ So many people look at success is just like having money. True, not having money can be a sign of a lack of success and also can deter you from being successful at other things that you do, but if you take guys like LVMH and like Kering, they might only have two or three businesses that are actually profitable and they all work together, but they are successful at taking brands that mean something to people.”
To the W reporter saying she’s on his side: “Um, no. I wouldn’t say that you’re on my side. I wouldn’t say that anyone in fashion is on my side. I don’t think there’s anyone on my side…I’m not saying I like that. I’m saying that to this date they do not understand who I am. They will not understand until after I’m gone. I am misunderstood and there is no one in fashion that’s on my side. Because if that’s the case, then take me and say, ‘Here’s your 80 people that work for you and here’s a straight up, honest deal for it.’ You don’t have to sign your soul away in order to. I don’t feel like…”
The last part of the interview is just one page, a solid block of text as Kanye rants about his influences and how everyone is against him and he’s a Renaissance Person much like Michaelangelo only no one will let him paint the angels. While I followed much of the rant, and I understood how Kanye organically jumped from point to point, from thought to thought, the last half of the piece got sort of messy and unhinged. The truth is, only Kanye know what Kanye means. Only Kanye can think Kanye-thoughts, #NoDisrespectToBenAffleck. That’s what I got out of this: everyone is against Kanye. Kanye is aggrieved. But maybe Kanye martyring himself for the cause of fashion is what he needs for inspiration.
Photos courtesy of W Magazine.
That’s because you suck.
Those were my literal thoughts when I read the headline.
“No one in fashion” – really? Nice try. He’s had doors flung open for him through his relationship with both Wintour and Tisci that any other fledgeling designer wouldn’t have even been able to knock on. Didn’t they have part of their wedding at Valentino’s house, for goodness sake?
Think they had the rehearsal dinner at Valentino’s house the night before.
Crazy and what does he expect when he just basically throws together dance and military surplus items as high fashion.
And mistreated the models he put in those surplus and old underwear items.
Yeah! So much for empowering women of color only to almost kill them with mistreatment. Like history just work them until they drop but worse because it was done by him under the auspices of offering diversity! Boo
he treated them like models
notoriously poorly treated
I see kids and adults put together outfits from Goodwill that are astronomically better than anything he has designed. Look around, Kanye, at the ordinary non-rich people and see how they dress. Lots better than you. Even I dress better than you, and I’m a boring slob. So many kids especially are very creative with their clothing when they don’t have a lot of money, and they look very good.
My issue with him is that he wants to just instantly be praised for his work in fashion the same way he is for his music without putting in the same amount of years of work. Also the first time he really started speaking publicly about wanting to go into fashion was when he was dating Alexis Phifer 🙄
Yes, as if anyone is owed praise. Gary Oldman is THE best actor alive and it took the Academy until 2012 to acknowledge him. You do what you do because you love it and it fulfills you, not because a jacket of yours isn’t featured on a Vogue photoshoot. Take *clap* a *clap* seat *clap*, Kanye.
Yes! Exactly! How many wonderful writers and painters were discovered after they were already dead?
I get irrationally irritated with Kanye. I just can’t stand to hear someone rant about made up stuff. I don’t care if he’s in debt. That’s his problem. Maybe he should do something worthwhile with his money like build a school of save it for his kids to go to college instead of designing clothes for hobos. A lot of us dressed like that in hs. I never considered myself a fashionista!
RAMI MALEK 😍😍😍 That’s amazing he made the list of the “new royals.” Glad he’s getting the attention he deserves. 😊
I get what he’s saying at times, but I wish he/his people could get him the help he clearly needs.
This person has a PhD in art? Is that for real?
I wondered about that, too. When would he have done this & how could we not know?
Yeah. From the art school that lives in his imagination. He makes me smile so.
Edit: i checked. Its an honorary degree. He really makes me smile.
What school was foolish enough to give Kanye an honorary degree in Art?!? Trump University?
Usually honorary degrees are given to acknowledge the accomplishments of a person outside academia that would be equivalent to degree work. If he has one for his fashion, the school is delusional. If it’s not for fashion related art, then he once again is delusional.
I thought he had dropped out of college before getting a Bachelors Degree; hence the album title “College Dropout.” And his mother, an academic, having to accept it and come to terms with it.
So, either he secretly went back and finished the BA or BS and then did the Ph.D. work, also secretly, highly unlikely, or he has conferred this unearned doctorate upon himself. Or did someone give him an honorary degree that he has stupidly decided is real?
“Or did someone give him an honorary degree that he has stupidly decided is real?”
Like Trump’s Purple Heart?
this is the best thing ive seen all day.
From The Guardian: Kanye West beamed on Monday as he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, one of the top art schools in America.
He did none of the work it takes to get that doctorate. He does not even have a BA or BS, much less a masters or a doctorate. I dislike immensely that these celebs get these honorary degrees then think they can put Dr. in front of their names.
Well, most of them have the sense to know it is not real and that to pretend that it is would be fraudulent. This blithering idiot has no sense.
nah honorary degree
*Miranda Priestly judgy eyes gif*
He really is a self-centred, self-involved fool.
I think that should read “anyone with eyes”….
Yeaaaaaaaahhhhh, if you could just show us the receipts for that PhD, that’d be greeeeeaaaaat.
And real receipts, not some badly taped together composition of mismatched paper with sections missing. Have it sent to us directly from the registrar’s office with the official school seal closing the envelope.
I legitimately LOL’d.
Hogwash.
You got an easy ride and opportunities given to you that would have been denied to others and you know what?
In the spirit of ego and the divine comedy it all came back to bite you in the ass.
Maybe if you’d struggled for years with smaller fashion shows just trying to get some attention you’d know how to run a massive show without your models fainting, their shoes breaking, and half the clothes shown not even being your’s.
Maybe if you’d spent time sewing and re-sewing, amending and changing your style, learning how fabric should be cut and hang on a body your clothes would actually be worn by anyone other than your family when they want to look like a mash of Mad Max and Downton Abby.
You wanted it easy. You wanted Mark Zuckerberg to swoop in and save you with a million dollars so you never had to struggle or learn a lesson. Well there it is. You’ve blown it again and again and the funny thing? If you had been able to do a BARELY DECENT job they’d have praised you like a king.
As it is now even your family doesn’t want to be seen at your embarassing shows anymore.
YES. Yes to all of this!
Not to mention, I get so angry when he talks about making his “art” accessible to people, or how he’s some great savior sent from above to deliver to the masses. Really? Explain charging $500 for a hoodie with holes in it. No sense of quality, what people really need. I’m sorry, I don’t think he’s a genius at all – I think he’s the epitome of the emperor’s new clothes. Even his music is total crap. For every “genius” song he puts out, there’s at least 10 horrid ones. And then he cries about not being taken seriously, no one gets him, blah blah blah. Because ultimately Kardashian money (as gross as that is to me) is keeping his doors open (because, publicity). and as we all know the Kardashian family is the phrase “even bad publicity is good publicity” personified. So sick and tired of knowing there are people out there thousands upon thousands of dollars in debt trying to make some kind of living in the art world, who create beautiful garments and masterpieces, who would never, EVER be allowed in the crowd of a NYFW show, let alone show there, and this dipstick has the audacity to play the victim when he’s splattered over every news outlet on the planet. I’m sorry for the rant, I’m just so incredibly sick of this crap.
Kanye is considered to be a talented producer, which is a valuable skill and creative, but he needs other people with talent for lyric and music to come up with something to be produced. So he’s definitely part of the process, but he’s not the Renaissance man he thinks he is. He depends very much on other people’s talents. The more he inserts himself into the production, the less interesting it seems to become. He does best when staying invisible in the process and especially keeping any Kardashian or Jenner out of it. Kim brings down anything because she simply doesn’t have those kinds of skills. The others aren’t any better. They don’t even play themselves convincingly on their own shows.
His clothing fashion is ridiculous even by haute couture standards and that’s why he’s not accepted widely in fashion. If he showed real talent, people would flock to his shows and look forward to them. I hear that he’s a good shoe designer but that seems to be it. And for all his talk about helping school kids dress for playground success – he doesn’t put prices where they should be for that. Besides, clothes with holes and rips are probably not in line with school dress codes or parental acceptability. Beyond the rich and upper middle class, people tend to be sensitive about being perceived as too poor to afford to replace clothes that get too tattered to sew together…
YEEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!! Thank you!! Perfectly put.
*standing ovation*
Woe is Kanye. Part of me still believes (or at least wants to believe) he’s just trolling us big time.
The outcome is always good when it’s him against the world. He already have a tremendous career and there’s so Much more to come.
That degree? HONORARY.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/11/kanye-west-honorary-doctorate_n_7259938.html
And it is going to, excuse me, “gonna” make all our lives easier. I won’t hold my breath for that. Conferred upon him because he MENTIONED the school in an interview, not because of any accomplishment. He is either a cretinous moron or seriously delusional.
I thought you were kidding, but looked at the link and the school really was that stupid to give him the degree just because he mentioned them at Oxford. People with real degrees from the school should feel embarrassed. I have never in my increasingly long life ever heard of anything so ridiculous. Honorary degrees are supposed to be recognition of achievement, not of accidental PR. They are enablers of a sadly disturbed and delusional individual. Now he’s running around claiming he has a real Ph.D. in Art, he doesn’t have the sense to put the crucial word “honorary” in front of it like every other recipient of an honorary degree. That’s deceptive.
Senseless or deliberately deceptive? It is one or the other and neither one puts him in a good light. But then, he also is a misogynistic pig so is he a clueless misogynistic pig or a lying misogynistic pig. Of course, he could be both.
And I have lost a lot of respect for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
*dying laughing at the reality of the Ph.D that the Kanye has* 😀
@Lilac, let’s cut to the chase and go with seriously delusional cretinous moron.
*Glances up at the actual diplomas for my Bachelors, Masters, and Juris Doctorate degrees hanging on the wall.*
Sure. Seriously delusional, cretinous moron he is. Also, he is a blithering idiot with bad taste.
Where Siriano is way underrated, dear old KANYE IS WAYYYY OVERRATED, A lot, but not only in his own mind, but also helped by the bowing down of o so helpful like Wintour.
Is he a Genius? He is a Rapper, who samples other Musicions work.
Doesn’t make him Genius. My husband likes some of his early stuff and thinks of Kanye as a good Producer, not with his newer stuff, mind you.
When hubby read about Kanye doing fashion and seeing the clothes he said as awful as the new Music and that Kanye should better concentrate on making his music good again.
Hubby worked as RJ for a couple of years and still has many friends with Music relations, most of them are laughing about Kanye and won’t play his newer stuff.
I cannot imagine sitting down to dinner with this guy. What the? Does he just rant and rave while Kim takes selfies at the table? Do North’s eyes nearly roll out of her little head while she sits there.
I question the judgement of anyone that believes this guy is a genius. He always sounds like an entitled brat. He is a grown man. What is wrong with this person?
Oh and now he thinks he has a doctorate. Some people actually work hard and sacrifice to get those… And it costs money.
I cannot believe there is a person alive that takes him seriously. Fashion? I have never once even seen him dressed decent. Not to mention looking fashionable.
I don’t believe for a second North is the one picking little spaghetti strap black velvet dresses or sheer lace dresses to wear with combat boots.
I’m sure Nori is old enough to have clear preferences for her clothing, but the stuff they put her in for their pap walks and events look very uncomfortable and not usually colorful and are very unlikely to be her choice. The stuff she chooses probably drives her parents bats because you know what three year olds prefer… As you say, not the mini-me garbage Kim favors.
But both Kanye and Kim have been promoting this idea that Nori is picking out those clothes and non-colors herself since long before she could walk or talk. I don’t know why they don’t just say they choose her clothes, like everybody else on the planet. Kanye must have an overwhelming desire to have a fashion prodigy sprung from his loins. She really just seems like a typical little kid, they need to step back and enjoy that.
Heaven help little Saint. They’ll be pushing him one way or another, too.
“Michaelangelo”
:sigh: it’s Michelangelo !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No one is on his side? Hasn’t the fashion red carpet been rolled out for him while he basically trolls the industry with this “clothing” line of spanx and baggy cargo pants?
I am pissing my pants with laughter over his story about picking out the most expensive coat for his mother. Apparently, he equates high cost with good taste. The whole Kardashian/Jenner clan is proof that expensive doesn’t equal good taste.
He hasn’t figured out that having scads of money means you don’t have to look at the price tag at all but can actually buy whatever you really want. He judges entirely by the price tag, which is why he ends up with a lot less than the best.
You can’t even pick out the tastiest frozen dinner successfully using that criterion. Or a bag of potato chips. The best plain potato chips in my local grocery are the house brand because they use really tasty oils (sunflower oil and corn oil). The more expensive brands have gone to blends including tasteless canola oil (to seem healthy when they’re not) and cheap soybean oil, which make plain chips taste blah. I get the cheap chips because they’re tastier than the ones twice the price. Doesn’t matter with flavored chips, but it sure does with plain ones. (Can you tell I’m serious about potato chips?)
The thing I always find amusing is Kanye has no style as far as his own wardrobe. When I think of men into clothes and fashion with a great sense of style or unique sense of style Kanye isn’t even in the top 100,000. LOL
Crazy? Yes. Genius? Definitely not.
Ugh stop. Kanye West is NOT brilliant but incredibly delusional. He is not “crazy and brilliant.” Just crazy. I realize he may seem amusing with his word vomit and he is a modetately talented rapper but he knows nothing about fashion. Rattling off the names of a few designers does not mean anything, anyone who has a passing interest in fashion can do that. He will never gain respect by parrotting he is a misunderstood genius. But he will never shut up because he loves the sound of his own voice too muchh so he will never be taken seriously. And so the cycle continues.
No one is on your side, pal. Just you.
pHd my arse. It’s not a real one
Does he want to be called Dr West now?
I would love to know the dirt that Kanye West and the Kardashians have on Anna Wintour. (They already own TMZ and E!) Whatever they have on Wintour must be juicy because they’ve forced her to turn the Vogue cover into US Weekly. Before too long, Kylie Jenner will be on the cover of Vogue and Wintour will re-spin some steaming pile press release about Vogue featuring “21st century young icons”.
I’m mistaken. He does have an honorary degree from The Art Institute of Chicago. I still don’t like him or his fat wife.