Transcript: Kanye West Interview Night Of Car Crash
Kanye West: So, I'm Kanye West, super producer, extraordinaire, allowing myself to introduce myself.
(Through The Wire plays)
Kanye West: If you hadn't heard just three seconds ago, I'm Kanye West. And you know, I'm also known for such hits such as...
(Izzo (H.O.V.A.) plays)
Kanye West: You know, you see the gear. You can take it down here. You know, go to the front there. I try to switch the game up, man. Anytime somebody do something, I'm going to try to figure out something new, man.
I forgot, this one dude, I don't believe in psychics, he came to me, he's like, yo, I think your job in life is to go out and find new things. Like, basically, like, going out and doing a soul when nobody's doing it and bringing that back. Or a lot of the concepts that I'm finna talk about in rap. Or like... Back when I was winning throwbacks and I had to go down to Atlanta to find them before mad niggas was winning throwbacks.
It's like, so when you see me, you might always see me like on some next year and be like, yo, this is just kind of weird or something. But then just keep in mind what I had on and then look up two years later, Niggas gonna be on the hill there. I just can't, you know what I'm saying, follow up to her because everybody I was in high school with that was doing exactly what everybody else was doing is still...
I can explain to Angel first of all, like, I remember I was driving to go pick my girl up from school, and I was on an expedition, and I saw some cars veer off to the side of the road, and I was like, oh shit, I better slow down! It was just like too late. Hit a car like fishtail, and it ended up flipping over like three times. And it was like all type of glass and snow and dirt on top of me, and I just walked away like Bruce Willis or something unbreakable or something.
I remember my mother said, yo, you must really have the angels with you. And it's like so many situations that I know I had the angels with me. So I couldn't figure out a better charm for me. You know what I'm saying? It wasn't like a cross or, you know, people just get all kind of miscellaneous shit. You know what I'm saying? But this really got meaning to me. Like, I never seen nobody with this.
And for this piece right here, I mean, y'all know what this is when y'all seen it. So this specific one is the L shit right here with the, I'm the newest member of the Rockefeller team. Nigga was like, oh, shit. Then Dave just took the chain off his neck and put it on my neck. And we had the Sprite tour. We in front of like 20,000 people. I'm in my hometown and shit. I'm just like, oh, shit. I couldn't even believe it.
Because I'm a picky nigga, you know what I'm saying? If I ain't got the chain with the white diamonds, and you know I don't really wear white diamonds like that, I probably, you know what I'm saying, I probably be on karma. But I said I got the yellow diamonds. I was like, oh, shit. You know what I like, you know what I mean? I got up there
DJ Whoo Kid: How was it to work with Jay-Z?
Kanye West: Easy. That shit. Come on, man. He just write his rhymes. Five minutes in his head and just be a hit record, so. That's crazy. So that, yo, that is easy. It can make you lazy. But I like the experience of working with other artists. I don't know some artists, though, man. I ain't gonna name no names, man. Some artists be too much like slave drivers. Like, yo. Like, yo, I laid the beat, man. What? What else you want me to do, man?
Boy, that's why I'm saying, don't let me, yo, y'all don't want me to sell too many records, man. I'm telling you right now, I'm quit. Completely. I'm gonna just work. They're gonna be like, where's Kanye? I'm gonna say that I'm like in Jamaica. I'm gonna be right there in Chicago or Jersey or something, just working on my shit. Cuffing all the beats. Only people, this is going to be like family, Rockefeller, you know what I mean?
I had to learn about publishing, man. Samples took all my publishing on that blueprint. We getting fucked up, man. I changed the game, man. I did that blueprint. That was for y'all. That wasn't for me. I ain't getting shit from that.
DJ Whoo Kid: What do you got to say about that, Triple H?
3H: It was a quite indeed record, I must concur.
Kanye West: Now what if Michael Jordan decided to stick to baseball and Jay-Z decided to stick to crap? Just Blaze decided to stick to engineering and Kanye never decided to rap. But he wasn't talking about coke and birds. It was more like spoken words. Except the niggas really putting it down. And he explained the story about how blacks came from glory and what we need to do in the game. But keep in mind, as long as it's Moser folks and niggas is dead broke, some things ain't gonna never change. But it ain't the Moser folks. It's the white folks that brought us over here with bolts and tightrope. But don't forget it was all side niggas because the kings got rid of us like selling a crackhead soap. Now follow me, sometimes I feel like I dream in subtitles say things that mean things but hide them in club titles. So you'll hear something real and think that it's meaningless like damn I know I feel but I don't know what the meaning is. See that there makes it so ingenious. And that's why Kweli never was lenient, cause he know what I got, know I was making it hot, who I was making a lot, for' I made it to the Roc.
Kanye West: All right, so I'm chilling here with my dog, Whoo Kid, and I got my dog 3H. You gotta give 3H a plug man
3H: Hey guys!
(Last Call plays)
Event Date: October 22, 2002