Ye recently joined DJ Akademiks for an interview, where his controversial outfit sparked an online debate. Billboard staffers dive into his outfit choice, his commentary on Kim Kardashian, Kendrick Lamar, and Drake, as well as his recent split from Bianca Censori. Keep watching to learn more about the discussion.
What do you think of Ye’s interview with DJ Akademiks? Let us know in the comments below.
What do you think of Ye’s interview with DJ Akademiks? Let us know in the comments below.
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00:00He just wants attention.
00:01I mean, he's been kind of saying ridiculous shit
00:03like for like over 10 years now.
00:06We're talking all things Ye from his new breakup
00:08to his controversial wardrobe and his feelings
00:11on the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beat.
00:14Aw, y'all Kanye got on a KKK outfit.
00:17Dude, and of course he's doing it,
00:18talking to academics of all people.
00:22This is my thing.
00:23It's like, I like Kanye.
00:25His music is great.
00:26I like Kanye.
00:27Was, was, was great.
00:30Let's say was.
00:31He's a legend.
00:32So of his music, I still love.
00:34But this KKK, first of all, where do you get this?
00:37Like, where do you get this?
00:38You don't think he just made that?
00:39Like, out of a sheet?
00:40Google, like, KKK.
00:42No, you don't think he just put a black sheet over his head
00:45and cuts like two eye sockets out of it?
00:47It's pointing.
00:48You put a cone on top of it.
00:49Yeah, he could have done that.
00:50This is Kanye being Kanye.
00:53He's completely on brand.
00:54Kanye is a fashion designer, right?
00:55Exactly.
00:56He has music.
00:57He could have made it.
00:57If I ever went to someone's house and they were at a sewing machine
01:02just making a KKK costume, an exclusive all-black one.
01:05You think Kanye was just sitting at a sewing machine making it?
01:07He might have had somebody do it.
01:09He definitely pitched the idea if he's wearing it.
01:13He's like, you know what would be great?
01:14A black KKK costume.
01:16And then, like, the things he said in the interview,
01:19sometimes it seems like it's a parody of him,
01:21even though it's really him.
01:23He literally goes, I'm evil.
01:25And academics just stares at the man like,
01:27and he's like, yeah, I'm an evil man.
01:29You know, they always say sometimes, you know, when someone passes away,
01:33you know, can't be for the dead man, you know?
01:35It feels like you still have a little bit of animosity there.
01:38I'm evil.
01:41You don't think about, like, his family and other people that love him?
01:44I am an evil person.
01:45You don't think that.
01:47Who does that?
01:48Yeah, I don't think it's, like, not calculated.
01:50It's very calculated and planned.
01:53You know, like Stephanie said, he's in the fashion industry.
01:55He's trying to make a point.
01:57He's trying to be a disrupter, you know?
01:59It's very odd.
01:59Everyone can see that it's very strange for a black man to be wearing a KKK costume.
02:05But I wonder, in his, like, way of thinking is, is it a way to, like,
02:10take back the power of the KKK costume?
02:12I don't know.
02:13No, I think Kanye is just...
02:14I mean, I think you might be thinking deeper than him, hopefully.
02:16He just wants attention.
02:17I mean, he's been kind of saying ridiculous shit, like, for, like, over ten years now.
02:21But look at all the other fashion things that, you know, he's trying to get attention.
02:24Well, it's not even about the fashion.
02:25Like, he walked into TMZ's office and was like,
02:27black people deserve slavery.
02:29When you hear about slavery for 400 years, for 400 years?
02:33That sounds like a choice.
02:35Wait, what?
02:36You missed that?
02:37Wait, what?
02:38This was, like, a couple years ago.
02:39Yeah, yeah.
02:40I was like, how can you be saying that?
02:42I didn't want to have children with this person after the first two months of being with her.
02:48But that wasn't God's plan.
02:50Like, that's, like, probably one of the craziest things he's ever said.
02:54But then now he's bringing kids into it, which I think is weird.
02:56And him to say, like, he never wanted to have kids with Kim.
02:59That's rude.
03:00That was crazy.
03:01Yeah.
03:02Again, he always says stuff.
03:03Like, I don't know if he actually believes it.
03:05He could say anything.
03:06It's like, I don't know if you actually believe any of that, Kanye.
03:09It's like performance art.
03:10You know, maybe...
03:11Maybe...
03:12This is bad performance art.
03:13Maybe it's like this is a long-term...
03:16I am playing a character and I'm using this for a later...
03:20A later thing, you know?
03:22Like, he was like...
03:23What's the character?
03:24Well, he's dropped the album and nobody's listening to it.
03:26So, I feel like...
03:27Maybe it's a lead-up.
03:28Maybe it's a lead-up.
03:29This is all part...
03:30This will all be part of the plan.
03:31You know, because...
03:32What plan?
03:33You gotta think out the...
03:34You know, when you get a costume like that, you're thinking out something in advance.
03:37Because you're like, I'm gonna do this on Tuesday.
03:39Okay, I'm gonna...
03:40Yeah, but...
03:41He wants to cause discourse.
03:42That doesn't mean...
03:43Just because you have a plan to wear a costume, that doesn't mean like, oh, I'm playing a character.
03:47I'm gonna...
03:48It wouldn't be so funny if I wore a black KKK costume to an interview.
03:51You could be thinking like that.
03:52But I...
03:53Freaking, freaking Chappelle.
03:55Back in the day on Chappelle's show.
03:56The character Clayton Bigsby and he was like, maybe he was watching...
03:59That was actually like a show though.
04:00But maybe he was watching reruns and was like, oh, this character...
04:03I do believe the performance art bit.
04:04Oh, this comedian is so...
04:06I can kind of get into it, but then like...
04:08I just don't...
04:09Who booked this?
04:10Like, did academics call him?
04:11Did Ye call academics?
04:12I definitely think academics called him.
04:13Why are they there?
04:14He's just like an...
04:15He's just like an instigator.
04:17Like, academics.
04:18Like, he's like...
04:19But then they...
04:20Talk about instigating.
04:21Then they brought up the whole Drake thing.
04:22How do y'all feel about him saying that Drake is a better rapper than Kendrick?
04:25Because he believes that Kendrick paid for the whole hype of Not Like Us.
04:29I just feel like Ye always talks out of the side of his mouth.
04:32I was just gonna...
04:33Like, he always like...
04:34At one point he was like backing Kendrick for a little bit.
04:36He did.
04:37And then now he's backing Drake.
04:38Like...
04:39Which is crazy considering their history.
04:41I just think like he doesn't...
04:42He does...
04:43He hates that he's like not the biggest rapper.
04:45He's not like in that conversation anymore.
04:47And he's not dominating hip hop the way he used to.
04:50And like he could get back to it if he like made music that people were listening to all the time.
04:55Duran, did you listen to his most recent project?
04:57Why are you asking me that on the phone, man?
04:59Why are you doing this?
05:00I just wanna know.
05:01Cause nobody's listened to it.
05:02So I just wanna know how many of you listen.
05:03I'm gonna be honest.
05:04I have listened...
05:05I have listened to the album with him and Ty Dolla $ign.
05:07And some of those tracks I generally do like.
05:08I like the one with his daughter on it.
05:10Like I think...
05:11The thing about it is I think some of his music actually is good.
05:14It's just that so much comes with it.
05:16We can't like...
05:17You know, I can't blast it because people are like,
05:19Why are you blasting Kanye?
05:20Like, I can't wear Yeezys.
05:22You know, I can't wear Yeezys, which is a comfortable shoe.
05:24And if you had to put the...
05:26If this was the Mount Rushmore, we're looking at Yeezy.
05:29We're looking at Ye.
05:30We're looking at Kendrick.
05:31We're looking at Drake.
05:32How does that ring?
05:33I mean, to me it's like...
05:34I hate to say, if you're looking at people who have affected hip hop and music, period.
05:38I think Kanye is up there.
05:39I think you go to backpacking Kanye.
05:40I think if you even go fast forward, like he's done so much.
05:43I think Future's on that list.
05:45So I think Future has done a lot for hip hop, but people don't give him credit for him.
05:48Yeah.
05:49I think Kendrick's on that list.
05:50I think Drake is on that list.
05:51You could put Eminem on that list.
05:52Eminem.
05:53Eminem.
05:54There are a lot of people you could put on that list.
05:55Jay-Z, Tupac.
05:56I think that list, like I think Nicki, Goonie Nicki's on it.
05:58I think that list is...
05:59So Kanye has not removed himself from the list.
06:01No, I mean...
06:02With these...
06:03He's influential.
06:04His discography speaks for himself.
06:06But I think like, even Carnival, like he needed Playboy Cardi on it.
06:10Like, and you can see it with the numbers with Cardi now, that he performs well.
06:13He's selling.
06:14People love him.
06:15Young kids especially.
06:16Like, I don't know if Kanye, like if he made just like a normal song by himself, like it
06:21would do as well.
06:22Because I just don't think like...
06:23And now...
06:24It means he's not gonna Playboy Cardi now.
06:26Yeah.
06:27Yeah.
06:28Which was a bad idea.
06:29I think we're living in this time where it's really hard to separate the musician from
06:32the person.
06:33And I think he is an example of...
06:35Again, I do like his music.
06:37If I go back to his discography, I'm like, it's good.
06:40But when someone brings him up, and I'm like, yeah, I don't know what.
06:42He said, what about slavery?
06:43Yeah, and I think the...
06:44Sorry.
06:45I think the part that's putting me over the edge is bringing in the kids.
06:48Like, that's the part that's like the most strange and upsetting.
06:50Because it's like, do what you gotta do for yourself.
06:53But like, you know North is gonna watch it.
06:56You know?
06:57Like, how can you shield them from the internet?
06:58She's very online.
06:59Yeah.
07:00You gotta be like Playboy Cardi at this point and just say,
07:01Ye, shut the fuck up.
07:02Shut the fuck up.
07:03I mean, to go back to your point about the music.
07:05I mean, like, there were some songs, like, that I...
07:08Like, I didn't hate those, like, songs, like, on Ye's album.
07:11Even some of the unreleased stuff, like the Backstreet Boys song.
07:13Like, I thought it was...
07:14I thought that was super fun.
07:15The Backstreet Boys song was cringe.
07:16What?
07:17That was awful.
07:18I knew you...
07:19I didn't like that.
07:20Yeah, I thought it was fine.
07:21I just didn't think...
07:22I think, like, with his newer music, like Kanye,
07:25he just has, like, so much more of an artistic, like, ceiling.
07:28Yeah.
07:29To, like, explore things.
07:30Like, if you think of my Beautiful Dark Fantasy,
07:33and you think about, like, Graduation,
07:35and he was, like, really pushing stuff
07:37that, like, no one was, like, doing.
07:39And, like...
07:40I think even Graduation, you think about...
07:42Graduation.
07:43Like, you think about how much that changed,
07:44kind of, like, the pop music scene at the time.
07:47It was like, wow, this is a rapper that's making a song
07:50with a Daft Punk sample.
07:51It's like, wow, this is, like...
07:53No one was doing that at the time.
07:55It's like, Kanye, he has so much creativity,
07:58and, like, he's so artistic,
08:00but obviously, like, he takes it.
08:02He's kind of, like, lost the plot now.
08:04He has lost the plot.
08:05He could be doing so much better, I think.
08:07Like, the songs are good, but I'm, like,
08:09I expect more from you
08:10because I know how good of a producer you are
08:13and how much, like, how creative and inventive
08:15and, like, innovative you could be.
08:16And, like, you're just...
08:17Like, even the Backstreet Boys song,
08:19I was like, that's not innovative for you.
08:21He's like that cousin.
08:22You know what I mean?
08:23The cousin you have in your family
08:24who just thinks so fast
08:26and just, like, you have to keep them entertained
08:28or, like, you have to keep your mind flowing
08:30before it just goes off on another thing.
08:31I genuinely think, based on how he used to be,
08:34he is so artistic.
08:36He had shoes.
08:37He had clothes.
08:38He had music.
08:39And now I feel like some of those things are gone,
08:41so it's just, like, what do you do with a mind that races like that?
08:43The things that were, like, holding him down
08:44and, like, giving him structure.
08:45Yeah, yeah.
08:46And I feel bad that, like,
08:47he's pushed against the Kardashians or Kris
08:49for, like, trying to control him or mind control him
08:52when they try to get him help mentally.
08:54Yeah.
08:55And I just hope that there's somebody in his life
08:56that he can trust that tries to get him the right mental health.
08:59Yes.
09:00It's giving mental health.
09:01And that's not it.
09:03Ye recently confirmed a split from his wife
09:05in a new song, He Raps.
09:07My baby, she ran away.
09:09But first she tried to get me committed.
09:11Not going to the hospital because I'm not sick.
09:14I just do not get it.