Kanye West wrote his own cover story for Paper magazine — of Kim Kardashian butt champagne fame — and spoke about the American Dream. In true Kanye style he talked about everything from Tidal and the Illuminati to Madonna to not loving music as much now to his momentous attitude shift after taking in nitrous gas at the dentist's office.
Here's a look at the top five quotes from the essay:
1. "I heard a comment — a joke — about the Tidal press conference being an Illuminati moment. If there was actually an Illuminati, it would be more like the energy companies. Not celebrities that gave their life to music and who are pinpointed as decoys for people who really run the world. I'm tired of people pinpointing musicians as the Illuminati. That's ridiculous. We don't run anything; we're celebrities. We're the face of brands. We have to compromise what we say in lyrics so we don't lose money on a contract."
2. "Madonna is in her 50s and gave everything she had to go up on an award show and get choked by her cape. She's judged for who she adopts. F— all of this sensationalism. We gave you our lives. We gave you our hearts. We gave you our opinions!"
3. "I loved music. I loved it more than I love it now. But I think that can happen with anything. You can live in New York for 10 years and say, 'I now want to move to San Francisco.' It's just harder for me to do music now, period. It's easier for people who focus on it all day and who are younger in their concept of what they want to do with it. I am not what I would consider truly a musician. I am an inventor. I am an innovator."
4. "One time I was at the dentist's office and I was given nitrous gas and I was vibing out — I guess that's my version of Steve Jobs and his LSD trip — when I had this first thought: What is the meaning of life? And then I thought, To give. What's the key to happiness? Happiness. [...] Then I said in my mind — I'm still under the gas and getting my teeth cleaned — But I just want to be remembered. And I immediately corrected myself. I said, It doesn't even matter if I'm remembered. I came out of the gas and had a completely new attitude on everything. It's fine to not get credit for everything; it's almost better."
5. The times that I've looked like a crazy person — when I was screaming at an interviewer or screaming from the stage — all I was screaming was, "Help me to help more! I've given all I've got. I've gone into f—ing debt. It's all I've got to give. But if I had a little bit more opportunity, I could give so much more." That's what I was screaming for. Help me to help more.
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