UPDATE: The second part of BBC Radio 1’s interview with Kanye West has been released. In it, the rapper expresses frustration with big companies and says he’d like to one day design uniforms for his high school basketball team.
Chicago rapper Kanye West has become increasingly known for his ventures outside of music. He broke into the world of high fashion with his first womenswear collection in 2011, has met the needs of sneaker heads worldwide with his Air Yeezys and recently sold out of his collection with A.P.C. in a matter of hours.
During an interview with BBC Radio 1’s Zane Lowe, ‘Ye continued to express his interest in things outside of music. In fact, the rapper said that he’s hoping to gradually work his way to becoming the mastermind behind the first trillion-dollar company. The Yeezus rapper made reference to that particular goal while speaking on a specific lyric from “New Slaves.”
“When I say, ‘Clean water was only served to the fairer skin,’ what I’m saying is we’re making product with chitlins,” said Kanye. “T-shirts, that’s the most we can make, T-shirts. We can have our best perspective on T-shirts, but if it’s anything else, your Truman Show boat is hitting the wall…What people don’t realize is I wanna make uniforms for my high school basketball team through Brand Yeezy. I want to make that one step and then make another step. And then eventually do uniforms for the entire city. Then I want those uniforms to be hot and make money. Then I eventually want to be the anchor and the force behind a billion dollar company…I eventually want to be the anchor of the first trillion dollar company.”
Kanye further commented on his goals outside of music and shared the reason why he hasn’t been able to fully tap into his creative side as he spoke on his highly popular collaboration with Nike, the Air Yeezys. According to Kanye, despite the popularity of the kicks, Nike did not reach out to him immediately following their release.
“I shouldn’t be limited to only one place of creativity,” he said. “And it’s literally only like one or two or three reasons why I haven’t been able to break that down. This is the thing, you guys don’t understand. You guys don’t understand that I did the Yeezys and they eBayed for $90,000. And people wanted them bad as whatever, right? But I didn’t get a call from Nike the next day. You guys don’t understand that I’ve met with companies and they say, ‘What we’re trying to figure out is how we can control you and control that.’ If you’re an architect, if you’re a world builder, if you have all these ideas and you’re gaudy and you want to build buildings, if you don’t ever get that out what ‘s gonna happen? Isn’t that why you do it?”
Additionally, Kanye expressed his desire to design clothing for those who don’t flaunt Versace-friendly budgets, as he commented on a designer’s inability to reach out to the average consumer due to cost concerns.
“I’ve dedicated the past 10 years of my life to this,” Kanye said. “I spent 80 percent of my time working on this and 20 percent of my time working on music. Why do you think the song ‘Niggas in Paris’ is called ‘Niggas In Paris’? Cause niggas was in Paris. That’s why we were in Paris. I put in the 10,000 hours. I’ve got a very specific, particular take on men’s footwear. No one can say I cannot design or understand how to design a guy’s sneaker…I’m not trying to get into that world. I’m trying to make a higher level of product for the real world. People say, ‘Life isn’t fair.’ And unless you Kanye West or you this pretty girl that dates this soccer player or your parents had money, you don’t get to wear Versace all the time…The creatives, they want to connect with people. These artists, the clothing designers, they want to connect with people the same way that music gets to connect with people. But the cost of silk is too expensive. And they won’t lower their quality level.”
During the hour-long interview, Kanye West also offered a few words of praise while speaking on fellow artists Jay Z and Rick Rubin. He also commented on his relationship with Kim Kardashian who he says gave him “everything.”
