With what’s happening in the current election cycle, a Kanye West 2020 run doesn’t seem as preposterous as it should. In an interview with BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac on Sunday, Kanye revealed he still holds said ambitions.
“We are numb, we’re numb to 500 kids getting killed in Chicago a year, we’re numb to the fact that it was seven police shootings in the beginning of July … we’re numb to places on the Earth that we don’t live – like our life is okay but it’s okay for other people’s lives to not be okay. When I talk about the idea of being president, I’m not saying I have any political views, I don’t have views on politics, I just have a view on humanity, on people, on the truth. If there is anything that I can do with my time and my day, to somehow make a difference while I’m alive I’m going to try to do it.”
He touched on possibly collaborating with IKEA.
“I have to work with IKEA – make furniture for interior design, for architecture and I know that if I do a minimalist apartment inside of a college dorm where the TV goes on the side of the wall… Yo IKEA, allow Kanye to create, allow him to make this thing because you know what, I want a bed that he makes, I want a chair that he makes – I want more products from Ye.”
Headlining Glastonbury last year
“It was incredible. I started off the show and I completely messed up the music. And me, as you can imagine by this phone call, I’m a bit of a perfectionist. So it really put me into a slightly depressed state and it put me back in the position of when I was in high school and I got fired from my job, or when I played my music for R. Kelly and he told me he was going to sign me and then three months later I didn’t have any money I couldn’t afford a haircut, I couldn’t take my girlfriend to the movies and I’m still in my mumma’s bedroom, working on beats and I was that close to being signed by R. Kelly… I don’t usually get nervous, I prepare, I get fully prepared. When that music messed up in the beginning it tapped into my nerves and when you’re nervous or vulnerable something special and something different can happen.”
“I’m going to Adidas and I’m like Adidas, I know you’ve never made a shoe under 50$ but we have to make a shoe that costs $30 and I’m gonna be the coolest shoe of all. To me, this thing I’m saying is the thing I’m most excited about of anything I’ve ever done. To be able to take all of what I’ve learnt from the best designers and making collections with fashion people ripping me up alive and dissing me saying don’t quit your day job and all that, to be able to get to the point of being able to make something that everyone can touch and have that visibility.”
“Yes, most definitely. I’m telling you, whenever I’m in London, when I’m in Paris or Germany I feel an amount of love respect and appreciation that I feel more than when I’m in America.”