Joe Price – COMPLEX
Kanye West, who is now legally known as Ye, gave an extensive interview with artist Tino Sehgal to speak about everything from “capitalist rule” to “the death of Kanye West.”
Released as part of a standalone publication bundled with the latest edition of culture magazine 032c, the lengthy interview touches upon a planned performance piece entitled The Funeral Rehearsal of Kanye West, and his desire to turn his homes into churches. He also described 808s & Heartbreak as a major influence on the Weeknd and Drake, but the interview was conducted prior to Ye squashing the beef with Drizzy.
Speaking with Sehgal, Ye got technical about design and his ambitions, while also conceding that he’s got a hint of “corniness” to himself. “You know, I got a little drop of corniness, that little golden drop that makes it popular,” he said, per High Snobiety. “But I can’t let nobody love me too much, because I’m gonna get into this trap of love. And then I owe it to everyone to be the person that they fell in love with. And I’ll never be that person. I have to always have the freedom of being disliked, so I can always be me.”
He didn’t offer too much information on his performance piece, which was conceived while on a visit to Berlin, but it sounds as though the title of the project is quite literal. “[The Funeral Rehearsal of Kanye West] is the death of Kanye West. It is the death of the ego that separates us – it’s the birth of humanity,” he said, adding that he believes artists should plan their own funeral rehearsals. “Let me start by killing myself. The less you, the more room for God,” he said.
Elsewhere in the interview, per Reddit’s WestSubEver, Ye stressed the importance of communicating how you want instead of how you’re expected to. “Fuck the screen. Fuck the internet. Fuck amplified sound,” he said. “The way you have people communicate is the way people should communicate.”
He didn’t directly talk about his flirtation with Donald Trump and MAGAdom in the interview, but he did indirectly reference it by bringing up a conversation he had with former Trump advisor Jared Kushner. “You know, I was talking to Jared Kushner before they left office, and he was, like, ‘We are running a third of the land in America,’ and I was, like, ‘But what are you doing with it?’” he said. “It’s set up in a way that the Black community will never rise. People are just selling us drugs and selling us bad food, and media, and hate, and people are just not as happy as we could and will be.”
Curiously, he took a moment to suggest that society needs to move past the capitalist model. “We are under capitalist rule, and it’s killing us. It’s time to change that,” he said, while explaining why he wants to sell all of his property. “I’m going to be homeless in a year. I’m going to turn all the homes I own into churches,” he continued. “We’re making this orphanage, and it will be a place where anyone can go. It should be like an artist commune. Food should always be available.”
It’s not clear where Ye is at with The Funeral Rehearsal of Kanye West, but it would make for a great album title.
