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Kanye West

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a message from Kanye West. 

Following the release of his TIME Magazine cover, Kanye West graces yet another publication, but this time he’s written an op-ed tackling the idea of racism, innovation, family, and so much more.

In his own words, Kanye writes a lengthy essay for PAPER’s April 2015 issue titled “The American Dream.” The op-ed explains recurring themes we’ve heard Kanye discuss before, including racism, innovation, fashion, and family.

And what’s a Kanye West statement without the mention of an innovator like Steve Jobs? Yes, Kanye mentions the late great tech genius on three different occasions during his piece.

If you don’t have time to read his full article, we’ve pulled out everything you need to know.

Kanye’s Dream:

“I know people want to talk about the American Dream, but my dream is a world dream. It’s a world in which everyone’s main goal would be to help each other.”

Kanye’s Take On Being Employed At The Gap:

“It’s funny that I worked at the Gap in high school, because in my past 15 years it seems like that’s the place I stood in my creative path — to be the gap, the bridge.”

Kanye On “Reaching Back & Pulling Forward” New Talent:

“I think it’s so important for me, as an artist, to give Drake as much information as I can, A$AP, Kendrick, Taylor Swift, any of these younger artists as much information as I can to make better music in the future.”

Kanye Opens Up About His Infamous Leather Kilt: 

“And when you sit down with Riccardo Tisci at the Louvre and he pitches the idea of you wearing a leather kilt, which could be considered by all of your gangbanging friends as some sort of a dress or skirt, at that point you are now a part of the fashion world. You have paid your dues to be an insider. I paid my dues when I had to wear a kilt in Chicago, and friends would say, “What’s your boy got on?” But there are warriors that have killed people in kilts in the past. Who gets to decide what’s hard and what’s not hard? When I saw this kilt, I liked it. I was into it. It looked fresh to me. I felt creative; I didn’t feel limited by some perception. ”

Kanye West

Kanye On Being Put In A Box:

“It’s funny to be so famous and noted for one thing, and to have so many people try to box you out of another form of art, even if you’ve proven you’re an artist of one form. My goal isn’t to ‘break through the fashion world;’ my goal is to make usable sculpture. My goal is to paint. My goal is to be as close to a five-year-old, or a four-year-old, or a three-year-old, as possible.”

Kanye On Being Focused:

“Right now, over 70 percent of my focus is on apparel. I haven’t even given my College Dropout of clothing yet. We’re still on mixtapes.”

Kanye Admits His Love For Music Is Changing:

“It’s just harder for me to do music now, period. It’s easier for people who focus on it all day and who are younger in their concept of what they want to do with it. I am not what I would consider truly a musician. I am an inventor. I am an innovator.”

Two Things Kanye Likes (At The Moment):

“I like innovating and I like making things better. It’s not that I always have to invent things that are new. Sometimes I can take something that’s there and attempt to make a better version and that’s what gets me off. Bottom line.”

Kanye West

Kanye’s Tired Of Illuminati Jokes:

“I heard a comment — a joke — about the Tidal press conference being an Illuminati moment. If there was actually an Illuminati, it would be more like the energy companies. Not celebrities that gave their life to music and who are pinpointed as decoys for people who really run the world. I’m tired of people pinpointing musicians as the Illuminati. That’s ridiculous. We don’t run anything; we’re celebrities.” 

Kanye On Living In China:

“When I was 10 years old I lived in China, and at the time they used to come up to me and rub my face to see if the color would rub off. It was really fucked up, but I feel like it was preparing me for a world perspective that a lot of my friends who never got a chance to travel didn’t get. When I was in fifth grade in China, when kids would come up to me and touch my face, it was like they had never seen a black person before, but that was a while ago. That was 20 years ago and of course we’ve come a long way now.”

Kanye’s New Take On Racism: 

“On “Never Let Me Down” I rapped, “Racism’s still alive, they just be concealing it,” but for the next generation that’s not necessarily true. Racism is something that’s taught, but for the new post-Internet, post-iPad kids that have been taught to swipe before they read, it’s just not going to affect them as much. They realize that we are one race. We’re different colors — my cousins and I are different shapes and we’re all from one family. We’re all from one family called the human race. It’s simple as that. This race is up against some interesting things — poverty, war, global warming, classism — and we have to come together to beat this.”

On Why He Hasn’t Spoke Out Against Recent Police Brutality Cases:

“People have asked why I don’t speak out — on social media, for example — about events in this country. The way I see it, it’s not about a post on social media from me when there are people dying. There’s people in Chicago dying. There’s people all across the globe dying for no reason! There’s people who’ll never have the opportunity to live their lives for terrible, nonsensical reasons.”

SOURCE: PAPER Mag  | PHOTO CREDIT: Jackie Nickerson 

Everything You Need To Know About Kanye West’s PAPER Mag Op-Ed “The American Dream”  was originally published on globalgrind.com