One year ago, Kanye West was in a different space personally and musically.
He was coming off the heels off his 6th album, Yeezus, which was a huge departure from his soulful sound, fighting the paps, and planning the wedding of the year with then-fiance Kim Kardashian.
Now, Kanye seems a lot calmer and more reflective. The fashion industry that he felt didn’t respect him is more welcoming to his status, his collaboration with Adidas is coming later this year and baby North just celebrated her 1st birthday.
In a recent interview with GQ‘s Zach Baron, the Chicago emcee touched on his tumultuous 12 months, Drake running the rap game and lessons learned from his marriage to Kardashian.
On learning to live with fame and his paparazzi altercations:
That wasn’t my goal. My goal is just to be respected as a man when I walk down the street with my family. I don’t care what your job is: you’re not gonna talk down to me, you’re not gonna try to get a rise out of me. I’m a man first. And in establishing that, some interesting things have happened. [laughs]
On Drake being the most popular rapper in the game since last year.
Currently that spot is taken. Let’s be honest — he got last summer. Yeah. He got last summer. And I’d never given it up till last summer. Now he’s thinking about taking it back. It’s a real question for me. Do I want to?
On how Kim made him a better communicator.
One of the reasons I think that me and Kim are very powerful together isn’t just the concept of celebrity or this mega rap star and this mega-beautiful pop star. It’s something I explain to my girl: She is who she is. I am who I am. We have advisers and friends and everything, but those people are who they are, and we are who we are. And what I had to learn from Kim is how to take more of her advice and less of other people’s advice. There’s a lot of Kim K skills that were added. In order to win at life, you need some Kim K skills, period.
Kim K skills? Griofam, check out the full interview at GQ and let us know what you think in the comments below.