Live Wire

04/11/2004 10:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Billy Johnson Jr

You've been a fan of Kanye West's music for a long time now, even though you probably don't realize it. In 2001, this Chicago native struck it big when "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)," the track he produced for Jay-Z, reached the top of the charts. And Kanye's hits kept coming: Talib Kweli's "Get By," Jay-Z and Beyonce's "03 Bonnie & Clyde," Ludacris's "Stand Up," Alicia Keys's "You Don't Know My Name," Twista's "Slow Jamz," and standout album tracks and remixes for everyone from Britney to Janet to Brandy's new single, "Talk About Our Love." Obviously, Kanye's not your typical brand-new artist, even though his The College Dropout album, which entered the charts at number two, is his debut set.

Nearly two weeks prior to the release of The College Dropout, Kanye stopped by LAUNCH's main office for an interview and performance. During his chat with LAUNCH's Billy Johnson Jr., Kanye offered one of our most introspective interviews yet: He was rather open about record-label drama, why there's a mascot on his album cover, and how a near-fatal car accident in October 2002 changed his face, music, and outlook on life. Take a look.

YAHOO! MUSIC: How do you feel about your life today?

KANYE: I am just feeling like I really thank God for letting everything happen. There is a couple loose ends I wish I could tie up--just different people that weren't able to celebrate this with me. You know, it's like, even when you are at the highest point, there is always something that you wish you had fixed. But you just try to enjoy the success and everything that comes with it. It's still a lot of disrespect at the label, though. Like, just yesterday, I wanted to book studio time to work on a song, on my album. I still have, like, over $100,000 left on my budget, that I didn't go over budget. And they wouldn't even book the studio time, because they didn't understand exactly what I was going to the studio for before. And that's what happened with "Through The Wire" a long time ago. At that point when they did it, I am ready to just really black out. So a lot of times when people say, you know, "Kanye seems arrogant" or "He seems crazy," or whatever, think about it. I am an artist that has shipped 1 million in one day. Don't you think that I should get studio time? So my thing is, just come on, man. Stop playing. Should I please be creative, you know? And the thing is, if you all won't book it, I will book it myself. And I just get reimbursed. But why do I have to keep on going through that? And it's funny. Because people will think, "OK, now Kanye has the number one record in the country. He is just on top of the world." But I still go through struggles. I don't know if these people have vendettas where they don't want me to win, or if they don't want this style of music to be where it is. They don't want to accept anything new. Maybe I don't look intimidating enough for them to even respect what I am saying in the first place. I don't know what it is. But my thing is, when it comes to my music, I am so serious. I don't want anybody to comment on it. I don't want anybody ask me what type of song I am making. I'm a true artist. I don't need no A&R direction like that. Artistry comes from me. I am walking around with my people who know real-life situations, and I am playing to the music. And obviously, it's worked now. So can you shut the hell up already?

YAHOO! MUSIC: So you obviously know how you want to handle your projects.

KANYE: Yeah, I couldn't have wrote the plan out any better than it worked, you know? I always felt like I want to be in the forefront. But I definitely wasn't as ready as I am now. I'm here in the forefront now. But you see by the way I react to certain sh-t and it just sends me through an emotional spiral, that I am still not ready for where I am right now. But it just so happens I am here and I have to deal with it. And I have to learn. I have to learn what artists learn in 10 years. It took some artists 10 years to get to where I am at today. I had to learn that in the last 10 weeks! So I am going to make a lot of mistakes. I just try to learn how to take it as it comes, and still try to find time for myself to make good music. I sat back and learned a lot from working on Jay-Z's project, from working on Ludacris, Alicia Keys...I saw things that they dealt with. And that's another reason why I won't take as much sh-t as a new artist, because I see the sh-t that Jay wouldn't take, and it doesn't make any sense for us to take certain things. They are trying to run you into the ground. They don't care about that you need time to sleep, or if you need personal time to yourself. All they care about is getting the most looks so that they can make the most off of you.

YAHOO! MUSIC: What else should people know about you?

KANYE: Well, how about this: How about we don't even talk about the past? Let's just talk about the future. And from the point of The College Dropout, you can do whatever you want to do. You can have a mascot on your cover. I just like that cover. I did that just to say, "You can't tell me what to do," you know? It's just, like, the whole concept for The College Dropout is don't be scared. Do what you want to do. Make your own decisions. Everybody's got their own opinions, and they ain't got they sh-t right. You are not even happy. I am happy, and I got a mascot on my cover. And that makes me real happy! Now what you got to say? I am feeling, "He is crazy." But I don't care. Did you make the songs? OK. Then shut the f--k up.

YAHOO! MUSIC: So, the album is about making your own choices?

KANYE: Yeah. The name of the album isn't F--k School. The album is The College Dropout. I might go back to school, you know. I found out that I was really interested in post- and video-editing. And if I need to, I will go back, once I can learn from the school of hard knocks. But my whole concept of life is just, you know, use school, but don't let school use you. It's so many people that go to school for three years, and they have no idea what they are doing. They're just in school because they don't want their parents to look at them a certain way. And then they end up dropping out, or they graduate but they can't even find a job in they major. Like, this n-gga graduated at the top of our class; I went to the Cheesecake Factory, and he was a motherf--king waiter there.

YAHOO! MUSIC: Can you tell me more about the messages embedded in your songs?

KANYE: I feel like after I finish this album, I was thinking about how can I come out with the next one. How can I keep it up to the standard of quality that The College Dropout is? And the whole point is to never change, you know? Never start talking about what you've done in the past. That's what I feel is wrong with rap. People rap so much about what they've done. Tupac for the most part rapped about what we are going through, what people are going through. And as long as I keep that in mind, I'll be able to always touch issues. There is so many issues--more issues in this world to bring up than the amount of music that I can make. So I'll never run out of ideas. Look at the Red Hot Chili Peppers: He said, "Standing in line, standing in line" [in the RHCP song "by The Way"]. You know Anthony Kiedis don't have to stand in line for anything. But he always places his self as being a "regular person," that way regular people relate to it. The reason why The College Dropout won gold in its first week is because that average person that buys records looks exactly like me. So it's like, you give them all. You give them this type of rap or this type of rap or this type of rap or this type of rap. It's like the whole Eminem phenomenon. The average person that buys records looks like Eminem. You know what I'm saying? Just like a regular guy. You know, the average regular guy likes jewelry, or to have a nice car if he can afford it. You wouldn't opt not to have events, or you wouldn't not go on The Price Is Right--and they say, "You win a new Benz," and you say, "No, I want to drive a Nova." Uh-uh, you f--king drive the Benz. That's what you won. Everybody wants something better in life. So I speak from that aspect for the people. Like, I said on one rap, "I am a big tipper/I don't even be tripping/This my first real Rolex/It don't even be ticking/This is my first pair of earrings I can wear in the shower/Without them clouding up in a half an hour."

YAHOO! MUSIC: Tell me about the car accident you were in, which you rap about in "Through The Wire." How did the accident change your music?

KANYE: Well, the only thing this accident's is saying is, "I am about to hand you the world, just know at any given time I can take it away from you." To nearly lose your life, to nearly lose your mouth, your voice, your whole face, as a rapper...and I had to be on TV! My face looks crazy to me now. Everybody looks at it and thinks it's normal, but I feel very self-conscious about certain things. Look at my mouth--it looks like you can't even see my bottom teeth when I talk. You always see the top teeth. And that's not how I used to be. Or like, this crease where I had extra skin build up for when they had to close the mouth back up. And people act like they don't notice it. But every time, especially if I am lit wrong, I got to be like Michael Jackson and bring my own lighting techs. But I have to just thank God for the situation that I am in, you know. It's like, you turn the worst thing into the best thing. "Through The Wire" is the worst thing that could've possibly happen to me, and now it's obviously the best thing. Look how it exploded! And it made people care. And it made people realize that I was a human being. The same thing with 50 [Cent]. It's like you realize he was human. They have this whole "rappers are invincible"-type thing. Even the persona of a rapper who I do idolize, that put me in the game, Jay-Z, has more of an invincible, untouchable type of persona. He is the poster child. And it works. And only Jay can do it, you know what I am saying? So many people tried to copy that. But it's only going to work for him. So what I had to do was find my niche, what could work for me. I had to fight fire with water.

YAHOO! MUSIC: Is it true you recorded "Through The Wire" while your mouth was still wired shut?

KANYE: Yeah, I recorded the song two weeks later, with my mouth still wired shut. I felt like even if the song didn't blow up, that once other songs did blow up--which I knew they would--people would just look back and say, "Man, do you remember his first song? He recorded it with his mouth wired shut! He's crazy!"

YAHOO! MUSIC: Did the success of the song surprise you?

KANYE: Yeah, I'm surprised that "Through The Wire" has done as well as it has, especially with the label--not Rockafella, because Rockafella put the money behind it, but the major label that I was on was not giving a f--k about it whatsoever. I'm surprised that it did as well. I'm surprised that I sold this many records. I bet you--and I'll be willing to bet my whole career, I will quit right now--that Columbia spent twice as much on Beyonce's marketing or 50 Cent's marketing. You know what I'm saying? They didn't believe in me. But I love that, because it gives me the challenge. I have to overcome. And my thing is somebody tells me I can't do something, somebody tells me I can't hit layup, I am going to go up there and do a 360 dunk.

YAHOO! MUSIC: You've done so much in your career. You must have started young. When did you start in music? Were you an MC before you were a producer?

KANYE: I've been rapping since the third grade. And in seventh grade, I figured if I want to be a rapper, I had to have something to rap over. So I started doing beats. And I really got serious around age 14, when I even charged people like, $50 for a beat here and there. They used to consider me a prodigy--until I got too old to be one!