SAIC Artist Talk Kanye West HON 2015

[Applause] thank you guys so much as moments like

this that make the fight so worth it to know that you know there's people who

appreciate how hard it is to be an artist in a industrialized commercial

world so I like to start with the question so I can fill an idea energy or

a vibe of something you'd like to know and then I rip off that as opposed to preparing anything sounds good we're

ready for you the shovel you are up thank you um all right so the question um how do you navigate how do you avoid

being stereotyped so as a hip-hop artist when you're navigating all these forms that you're working in well metaphorically to be stereotyped as

a hip-hop artist can be very much a hood that can put you in positions where people wouldn't expect you to be and in

the same way how when you step into places and they have a you're not from here type vibe if you are from there and you're - accredited a lot of times

people will put their guards up and be less willing to work with you and a lot of times I've been able to work with the most amazing people on the planet because I was considered not to be a

threat to what they do because I was considered to be a hip-hop artist so it allowed me to work with a mere economy

or condo or Riccardo Tisci or you know Spike Jones and Spike Lee or all these

different fields that that

so-called box allowed there to be a level of a you know like a marriage or

something like people like working with people that are married because obviously there's some these people are

willing to can be controlled and

compromised so actually I I used that that little box in that stereotype to my advantage

to be able to just kind of put my hoodie on and collaborate as much as possible the two new are you ready I'm coming

back being in the music industry did you ever feel like you had to dumb yourself down or make yourself paddle your self palatable for like assyrians and then

was there any time that you actively decided not to do this yeah I think that it always people know the times where I actively decided not to do it because it

breaks the internet every time but I think the idea of dumbing down each one of the things is you guys are going to say I look at this a positive and it

that there's a negative that you think of as an artist but there's a positive to it - because it's the ability to accomplish more than the ability to step

back from that immediate battle to win an overall war and to understand how

long the war really is and understanding exactly how much to push on your concept

and how much information to put in there is how much the could see when to fight you know I remember on gold digger I had

this line that said when you get on in the last world white girl and there was a there was a radio guy who wouldn't play it because he was in an

interracial relationship he had a white wife he'd the black disc shock so it uh it it directly connected to something that he dealt with issues with his

entire you know marriage and relationship so he didn't want to play that I remember there's video footage of me getting really upset and fighting for

that to be played and you get like one of those Kanye West's outbursts but I was fighting at that time for the idea of the art not being compromised like I

didn't curse so what's so wrong with this concept it seemed like there was so many whether it's like whether I was using imagery of the Klan or MTV and I would say okay basic it so we can play

this many g-strings right but if you play an image of the Klan that's and what it came down to is all this is bad for business this is bad for advertising or it's making people think too much or

it's bringing a truth to people so tension that we don't want to we don't feel like right now and I think there's something about you know there's different kind of drugs if anyone's been

on vacation or taking drugs before I'm in art school so I'm just gonna assume that this has happened [Applause]

but there's drugs that make you tell the truth there's drugs that make you happy this drugs that make you sad there's different types of moods that can put

you in and music is like a drug you know people go on vacation I say did you bring the I won't say this I won't say the D word but you bring the drugs and

did you and they say also did you bring the music these things go together did

you bring alcohol you know it was so the interesting balance of making enjoyable music that also had truthful information

in it it was it was like always a very very fine line a fine line of when to

break the high in a way because there's a lot of you know like dance music like fall on the floor it seems like it's

trying to just be strictly the high and never break it never give any type of extra information to strictly be the smoothest drug possible and with

backpack rap it was always like this responsibility that we felt to you know our our parents our ancestors into our

generation at that time to use our platform of the drum to educate with it and we we took it as a responsibility

more than the responsibility of like personal wealth and I think that was the beginning first notes of any Steve Jobs

comparison before I even knew to be to have their audacity to compare myself to Steve Jobs there was a that that idea of the Benz in the backpack the mix of the

information the responsibility to my parents who are educators and the understanding that it had to be a bit dumbed down it had to be accessible in a

way an explosion

this is Andrea hi yeah okay um do you feel your work is influenced by the Baltimore riots or any other events

within the black community can you give us an example of how current events are getting bodies like yours affected your

practice I think every time we would go to the studio

we will recap our entire history up to

that point current events and you know

the past 500 years or past 20 100 years I said because I'm on the Christian

clock of them a Christian and and when I work I work really slow I let the steak

marinate so the idea is to of jumping to current event to event to event

they usually like come out in the in the music over a four to six month period from after they come to because everyone

wants to speak so quick and so emotionally and like react right away and it's just the way I create my musical way I create my content it just

takes me a little bit longer a lot more conversations and I don't like to complain without trying to find or offer

a solution which takes even longer so that's the that's the process and that's

how events like that affect my eventual the things I eventually say my next

question

sunny been waiting a long time she she's my girl and ever since I was this tall

you've been about you but um but I'd I ask a question to get to this question but uh my question is on front of West Side Chicago and I just gonna get emotional but I'm home lost to my

friends like I'm hungry they got shot cute and make all the right decisions I

never did drugs never did anything but uh I'm scared I'm scared I'm next I know Oh my family and I we live on the street

and we're scared four bullets come through the window hey hey my sister but like I'm the last hope I'm the first one to ever make it and I'm so hungry and I

need something now I'm just hoping you give some guidance to all of us you know we got to pick up there we got my buddy Ben over there like we need something to

keep going in the city because I don't know if if somebody else and my life's worth doing myself so I just all right get out

[Applause] I'm speechless I don't have an answer to

that I can only just listen to you and feel and understand what we're dealing

with here and I can't say that anything that I do or say will be the end-all

be-all difference I mean we can just try yeah I'm not I know you're going to try to give any politically correct answer that somehow makes it seems like after I

said that it's all good because it's not

all good it's [ __ ] up out here floor is open

somebody want to ask okay I'm Claire um that's something really hard to follow but I this is something I've been thinking about like while you've been talking I'm a fashion

student and I'm was thinking about like process and my process being something that's like based on like a feeling based on the mood I like I don't really

respond well to like sketching and I'm like really interested in what your hand is in your design like with your collection and be just kind of wondering

like what your process is like how you start like how you get an idea and like yeah just what your hand is in that process

well my process is very similar to how I work on music and I had this epiphany

like two months ago that I was in the exact same situation obsession and position in clothing that I was in music

about 13 14 years ago because when I moved to New Jersey from Chicago my entire apartment was filled with records from head-to-toe and when I was looking

at my room in my house two months ago it was completely filled with vintage samples and the bathroom had been taken over to samples and I had like the first

Louis Vuitton's and Perry ez the colorway that never came out just completely like you couldn't even use the toilet it was like so and I was like wow this is the same process and it's

funny that you talk about process because when I hire designers a lot of them have an issue with my process because I do 1 million style ups and a

style up is where you take vintage clothes you get like a hundred vintage pieces and then you sit there and you and you know one stylist or me and six

stylist sit there and and I say one stylist because design is so like contain most designers are extremely arrogant and don't want to ask a lot of questions and and then like johnny has

17 designers that have like and he's the best designer on the planet yeah and so my process I tried to think about

the way Johnny eyes would approach it the way Steve Jobs would approach it the way Walt Disney would approach to the way Howard Hughes would approach it as opposed to the way fashion had normally

been I don't even like the word you know I think it I'm I'm trying my best and I say extra politically incorrect things

anything unnecessary but to speak to that idea I'm constantly trying to find my process even right now as I'm doing

recruiting for my next collection and we're going to fashion houses and poaching talent and schools and getting

talent I talk about the not the process of just a fashion brand but the process of animation studio a process of a car manufacturer the process of Apple

obviously like I want to see everyone's org chart I want to see ten versions of org charts you know just in fashion alone like why does hmmm work in tzara work

why does Celine and Giovanni work why does the gap somewhat work not really you guys should call me why did the gap used to work

shots fired no but what is uh but a j.crew work Oh Mickey directly jax-ur

j.crew work Oh Mickey directly jax-ur the genius of course what is you know why does Apple work what are these what

are the strategies what is a setup what is the process that makes all these companies work and it's interesting because you always hear about you know

now tech pulling from pulling from fashion because fashion has this understanding of culture which is you

know what art drives and how do you do in a way where you truly understand and you're part of it like say the reason why I always say like Apple better than Samsung and I'm sorry I say it every

year but I mean they just kick their ass Samsung how to watch we don't remember that delete it now

Apple's is way better the but you know Johnny will sit and get mark Newsom to come in that did the ICO pod and design with them or like when we were when I

work with Murakami I would get them to work together what happens with like commercial or the average business world you know and in my mind I see millions

of colors in the business world I only see one what color do you think that is green it which it actually is my favorite color ironic ironically for

some reason that because of the color it was my mom's favorite color and I think it's just color nature and it's a awesome color I really don't like blue

actually the color not the child I love blue I love Jay I love Jay Z's daughter

so don't try to and then they're going to say jay-z doesn't like to ever fly on

Northwest but that question it was so interesting that you asked that question

because literally like I'll be you know having a styler and I'll be sitting there going to look after look after look after look and like a designer will come up to me and say it's time to

sketch Mac and I'm like no it's not we don't have a we don't have enough information or it's time for you to do the styling because I like the way you put it together I'm like no it's not I

don't have enough I don't have enough stars to build this constellation yet I need to keep seeing information keep because we want to invent we want to contribute something we don't want to

just capitalize off of what happened in the past we don't want to just do our version of a a polo collared shirt and put a logo on it we want to contribute want to think about what society needs

what people need right now and how can we provide it to them at a provide at a price that's you know we I mean realistic I don't use

the words affordable or contemporary and these everything's realistic you know and how you know I just visited Axl report he has a I'm gonna say this name

wrong and you guys are going to diss me but Fortuny I think is the name has a palace in Venice and I just came from the Biennale and acts of abort is a you

can't even pinpoint exactly what he is but he's like a mix between architect and artist it's almost diminishes them to say

interior designer but that's a form of what he does but his main point and I look at him as like Yoda I don't know if he looks at me like Luke but I look at

him as Yoda and his whole point is proportion how important proportions are so if you think of the idea of luxury I

have a theory and a feeling right now that I got from looking at actual lectures that the luxury is in the proportion whether you know small

proportion or Rome size proportion the luxury so when you think luxury I don't think of a really tight Gucci jacket with a logo on it there's nothing less

nothing luxury about that that's that's an insignia to say I'm part of this gang core you know I spent this money much money on it but then you'll see like

pictures of families in Africa that looks so dignified and so stylish and there's no way that their entire you add

up everybody in that family's outfit is no way it costs as much as that one Gucci jacket and the understanding of proportions like I when I was doing

Jesus and I was in Paris I was working on my apartment and I worked with this architect named Joseph de Ron and he introduced me to generate Charlotte

Arianna and caboose ei and caboose ei I bought this lamp and it was dumb expensive it was like 110 thousand dollars and

it was very inspiring to me and inspired the users out not just not just because it was expensive but more for the fact

that it was free when it was first made and it costs a lot because it's a statement now of class with these French

gallerists charge rich people more which I thought was really interesting as the world becomes less racist that there's

still a really big class war there's a real separation of the classes in the masses and Kalu's ei gave the people

higher ceilings literally and metaphorically and I remember at that time I was going through leaving Nike

and going to adidas and I was also dealing with trying to get a deal with a

luxury house because I wanted to paint but I wanted to paint with usable art

sculptures equals clothing clothing is a form of usable art and I would look at

that lamp that was made of rocks and cement but the shape was so beautiful and it wasn't even made of marble so when it was time to do the adidas collection I left Nike because they

refused to give me a percentage because I was not an athlete and I don't have an NDA that says I can't say this even though it seems like wrong to say out loud I left Nike because they refused to give me a percentage they also offered me

four million dollars a year to stay which is a unknown thing but I'm sure will show up or high-pitched tomorrow I

wanted people to know that and I still left them because they weren't giving me the opportunity to grow they were working on an old business model and

Phil Knight was somewhere on the island and then Mark carpet would go and find people who I collaborated with years before and try to do collaborations with

them to seem cool and as you see Nike hasn't done like one cool thing this

year shots fired and these are available

at Foot Locker right now these are these are just adidas that are fresh didn't any of my shoes I don't even get paid anything I didn't get paid anything to

wear but the point was when I would look at that kibou see a lamp and think he made this and he put this lamp in zoos

so everyone could have it it was about everyone having an opportunity to have beauty to be inspired how many times

have you walked into a designer store where you really like the head designer a lot and then you just you know you grab the piece and it's just impossible

to even consider how you could possibly ever afford that and you might just spend some time in the store until the point where they make you feel so

uncomfortable that you have to leave and you're like I just want to be at least around it for a while or you could take it to the

next level and just try it on catch a nice little selfie up in a dressing room

post so one of the things that I loved about being nouveau riche was the

ability to take those things out of the dressing room and by doing that I was able to learn and educate myself you

know I saw the Dior documentary and Dior was educated from day one he was born

with wealth and as you guys know whenever you try to get credit or car loan or anything like you got to have

something to have something it's almost impossible to start from nothing or maybe you have an extremely amazing talent and you can get a scholarship

like I did at one point I had a what is it a call when you don't have the whole

scholarship but partial scholarship for six months at the American Academy autoboot me to say Annette that was the

school I went to okay because they gave me the and I had a scholarship here to partial and then when that scholarship was up I went to I was fortunate enough

that my mom was a professor at Chicago State University so I could continue my education until I had the opportunity when I was you know making enough money

at the crafts you know I wanted to talk about this barrier between art music and fashion because as we know what the

class system knows the highest of course art art is considered to be the highest on the class system of creatives somehow

even above a director you know this that can even be mentioned in the same breath is that and I was on the phone with Steve McQueen one time I'm not a photographer

he had to like let me know okay but you use the camera Steve and I thought it

was really amazing that Steve McQueen the the the the best thing I thought about Steve McQueen winning an Oscar

wasn't as some people have told me he is

the first African American Oscar winner

he's not American bro but I thought what

was the best thing about Steve winning that Oscar was the fact that he was able

to be excellent at two disciplines absolutely excellent at two disciplines and there's theories about people who

are amazing at stuff actually are amazing at other things so it's so weird like so Lewis Hamilton's over my house right and he starts playing music I know

I'm super Randy Jackson I'm super Rando yeah it's good these random ideas they

all make up a point and he's there and we're playing some music in my studio we're having like a Easter brunch and all the family is there it's like

everything is all of all of my my wife's family and a lot of my friends and everything and he's playing music and everybody's like what is this music and

I'm like it's Lewis Hamilton's music and they're like oh my god I thought I was going to sound I'm not going to say the names that they said that God was going to sound like because that would be but it was it's good it's really really good

and it goes back to my point of which is a selfish point of mine because I want to make it back to the fact that I'm gonna be a really good clothing

designer uh but just as a point of discipline like per to knee it's a how you said an ala no and that's okay

because he was a a steer to designer clothing designer painter merchant and that people can have more than one skill

set but let me let me slip it on the other side so I have to use this example and I won't say the names but I'll just

say a friend of mine and they might be here but a friend of mine showed me

their sketchbook and their fashion collection and when I showed it to me I looked at it was have vibes it

definitely was vibe he you know and when I saw it I said well are you still in school and the counter response maybe I'm gonna go a bit heavy-handed on it

was that they didn't need school and then when I tried to express why they did need to have that education or really get their craft together they

brought up of course my best friend and creative director Virgil a blow who has an extremely successful clothing line right now and also is extremely successful DJ an extremely successful

creative director obviously and but I really stressed the point of how important education was and this is from

the drop out at it as always you know i sat with Louise Wilson a couple weeks before she died and she told me Louise

Wilson is the acclaimed professor from st. Martin's that taught Phoebe Philo

st. Martin's that taught Phoebe Philo Alexander McQueen John Galliano and I

feel like I'm her honorary student also and she sat there we sat at hackathons

and she talked to me for three hours and she always said these students that ain't worth [ __ ] she but she got sued

like four times in a very harsh and have you guys ever saw whiplash yeah something like that and and she said how's your daughter

doing and everything and I remember the last thing she says she said you know what the problem is that all these students as soon as they did anything from when they were really little

their parents clapped and the point she wanted to make to me that she said to me as we were leaving out the hallway of

the restaurant the last time I saw her was don't clap you have to push them you have to drive them I remember the first time when North climb all the way to the

top of the stairs and I'm trying to say that Kim would have grabbed her by third

stair but she felt like she had to impress me so much and be more dynamic

or hit the highest point that she had ever you know had ever hidden in her

life and Louise was really hard and you know difficult with the students but I felt like when you like Celine when you like McQueen all these things that have

inspired us I'm just talking directly about fashion it's because there were people that pushed that hard and you know that to defend myself but just to

take this opportunity because I have the mic it's not someone else's mic it's my mic I could talk right now I feel a responsibility to push in the world I feel a responsibility in my position to be like this is some

[ __ ] am I the only one here that's not crazy am I the only one here that's not afraid of losing a Samsung deal right now I

[Applause] think the responsibility that we have as artists and I will mention myself in the

same breath as you because after Tuesday

I will have a doctorate the song can't

tell me nothing never rang so true but I feel throughout time as artists our responsibility was the truth was to the truth because I always could history be

documented House could our time be represented this time that we had you know who's going to stand up and say you know as the gentleman said earlier today

how it really is right now who's going to express that it was a time when it hip-hop Express that it does it anymore in my opinion is just very simple it's like I'm a [ __ ] yo girl I got the drugs

with me I just my ID bought a foreign car no more hit you know when I would sit

with Farrakhan as I've done many times over this past year especially and got

really close to him he would stress that responsibility of the truth the truth no matter what when I was sitting with

Steve McClean he would express that responsibility of the truth the truth no matter what matthew barney is my

favorite artists Vanessa Beecroft I've

got a list but Matthew is my favorite that is my truth and when I go and see a

five-hour piece I just felt like he didn't hold back from what was in his his spirit I felt like he expressed

exactly the way he saw it and that's also the I use all these words I have a

really simple word that I want that describes it the best and I don't want to do a Porky Pig and you know say four words to describe this one word that is

the rank my hard drive it has the little rainbows spinning wheel on my on my desktop right now

I guess this could be it that is the privilege of art is to express exactly

what you feel and to never lose that I refuse to say the sentence all the way through about how everyone was born in

I'm not even going to finish that sentence but to capture your childhood

you know I say all the time every opportunity that I get every expanded

opportunity to paint I feel like I'm getting younger and younger and younger the idea of becoming an adult is the

idea of conforming and compromising my daughter I know she goes to sleep and she dreams this whole plan about how she's going to get away with whatever

she can possible by the time she wakes up and I think that that's also a responsibility of artists to try to get

away with whatever you can because everyone's compromising everyone is placing themselves in a social debt based on how big their house is or how

fast their car is and how fast the car is next door to them they're losing their art they're losing their passion

they're losing their purpose it's like the whole world is based on showing how much you have or posturing in that way I

went into debt to chase my dreams I went into debt when no one wanted a straight

black American entertainer to design a dress I went into debt as a rapper around with people I got my ghost all

this and it was like this unspoken word amongst the industry that somehow people felt like they could posture on me but

I'm [ __ ] Kanye West and [Applause]

and there's no value of house of car of idea of debt that will control my three-year-old that I have inside of me

that will stop my artistry that will stop my truth there's no mass public perception there's no immediate

finger-pointing that will stop my truth so you've heard the term no weapon

against me shall prosper and I would I would gamble that there's no current celebrity that there have been more

perceptions of mental or verbal press weapons formed against and I'd also say there are none more prosperous

so this is just an example that it's all smoke and mirrors other than what the

gentleman talked about earlier none of its real you know you can drive as a homeless person and think who's richer who's

freer drives has a homeless person in a Maybach and then who's richer who's

freer in the future I think because we're more visually driven due to thank

you Instagram Thank You internet Thank You just a communication to people understanding art like art being in style and fashion known you know and

appreciate it I think there will be more opportunities for us to be successful as artists be appreciated art means

something fonts may I get emotional over

thoughts spacing proportion okay I'll take one more question that was my

answer to that question by the way [Applause]

hi I'm where is so on Soundcloud on off

you can check aw but I wanted to know as a person who's pursuing music but also Phil as if I have some academic

obligation to finish school how what is this honorary doctorate mean to you you

have to move based on opportunity if you have an opportunity to make a living at

exactly what you dream about you have to pursue that at that time when it's there if the opportunity isn't there just keep

educating yourself as much as possible so that when the time comes you'll be even better at that dream that you had what I keep saying is I didn't I don't

want to totally touch on this too long because I might like start you know crying but I would think that my mom would trade in every single Grammy

Beatty every award for her son to have a doctorate being that she was dr. West I

won't touch on this too long so I always was frustrated when I would come to this type of I never came to

quite this kind of thing but you go to music seminar and it was giving people some comments or ideas when I couldn't

express myself so before I close I would like for you whoever still has a question just scream the question at me

all at the same time right now and I want to see if there's anything that I hear that I want to speak on go ahead this is your last chance I'm leaving

with [Applause]

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] [Laughter]

[Applause] [Music] [Applause]

[Laughter] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter]

yes I do

I do want to build a snowman hater

Ackerman the tribe so why say I want to build a snowman is because I want I want

Bob Iger the head of Disney to invest in my ideas not one idea not a good idea

even a bad idea a series of them but just in my ideas one of my ideas is that as I go to Art Basel and be an ally all these things I love Walt Disney I love

what he was able to do I love Howard

Hughes David Stern Steve Jobs but I feel Disney should have an art fund that

completely supports all of the artists and as you say this idea of coming and getting the talent here I feel that

there should be a responsibility recruiters constantly looking for new thinkers and connecting them directly to

companies that already work why does the person that has the most genius idea or cultural understanding or can create the best art have to figure out how to

become a businessman in order to be successful at expressing it like you remember jay-z has ever have I'm not a businessman I'm a businessman

I have a rap this like it says I'm not a businessman I'm not a businessman I think it's important important that

anyone that's in power to empower I I

like to think that I have a good eye for art that will be commercially viable I

know that the word commercial is like don't say that but I think that's my particular skill set at certain people who have the ability to you know work at

the mall and I was going to pop there certain people that can curate a gallery and that's a completely different skill set I think my skill set is somewhere in

between so I wouldn't even try to you know at this point in my life curate a

be an ally or but I felt that for these past ten years twelve years when we made music we tried to challenge the

commercial status quo and push art I have synesthesia I see sound in front of me I've been trying to paint this picture since high school Abbe paintings

of drums of snares of chords the colors that they are hot that's white

that's dark color I see it in front of me so when people try to separate art

from music or fashion or the art of conversation food everything is art we're all part of one big painting as

you guys saw that was a sonic painting that was happening right then we're all part of one giant movie one

giant painting every day that you step out you're a piece of the painting your contribution I could say something that

I give it like these really like meaningful statements and [ __ ] nobody oh that that really changed everything for me a-and [ __ ] I rather like a rather V

like Michelangelo knacks finish the statement you know that finish every you know and let's you you know the end of

Sopranos or some let you decide what happens [Applause] you