Ellen DeGeneres Interview: Kanye Keeps it RealKanye West

[Ellen DeGeneres:]
You send things out on Twitter and sometimes, like Kim has said -- and I’ll tell you this also, I don’t know if she’s told you this along with not wanting more children -- but Kim has said…

[Kanye West:]
I’m fine to just practice.

[Ellen DeGeneres:]
That’s all you get to do. Kim said there should be a board of directors that goes through your tweets. Like, when you have an idea you give them to Kim and a bunch of people and they go, "Okay, you can tweet that" or "No, you cannot tweet that." Do you think you should have a board of directors?

[Kanye West:]
Absolutely not.

[Ellen DeGeneres:]
No?

[Kanye West:]
Yeah.

[Ellen DeGeneres:]
Everything you tweet, you think – have you regretted anything you’ve tweeted?

[Kanye West:]
Nope.

[Ellen DeGeneres:]
Nothing, never? You don’t go, "Maybe I should have thought about that a little longer"?

[Kanye West:]
What’s the point of thinking?

[Ellen DeGeneres:]
"What’s the point of thinking…" Well, sometimes I understand, but sometimes there is a point to thinking. And then you tweeted out that you want Mark Zuckerberg to give you $53 million. In hindsight, should of that have gone on Facebook?

[Kanye West:]
Yes.

[Ellen DeGeneres:]
Yes.

[Kanye West:]
I could've put that on Facebook, now I understand why he didn’t hit me back.

[Ellen DeGeneres:]
Yeah.

[Kanye West:]
I understand that Zuckerberg doesn’t use Twitter.

[Ellen DeGeneres:]
Yeah.

[Kanye West:]
Even though I have had dinner with him and his wife and told them about how I wanted to help the world and he said he’d help me and then blah, blah, bla, like... and that’s how it feels though, you know? It’s like the pursuit of happiness, like it’s like, you’re trying to sell this bone density machine or something. You know, like in that movie. I feel that if I had more resources, I could help more people. I have ideas that can make the human race existence, within our 100 years, better. Period.

Fuck the paparazzi, whatever perception you have of me, starting with the truth, starting with- starting with what everyone’s thinking. Start there... put some dope shit with it.

[Applause]

[Ellen DeGeneres:]
Ok, I’m with you on –

[Kanye West:]
'Ye is in the building! Put your motherfucking hands in the air right now! Put your hands in the air right now! Yeah, okay.

[Ellen DeGeneres:]
I’m with you on the truth part. When you say put some dope shit with it. Give me one example, the ideas, 'cause maybe someone watching will give you the money.

[Kanye West:]
We’re in a renaissance period. We’re in a place where people are, like, multi-disciplined artists. Like Steve McQueen that directed 12 Years a Slave; he was considered to just be a photographer, but then he won an Oscar. We’re not in a place where people can only have one career or one profession throughout their entire life. So the exact amount of emotion and color palette and sonics and everything I put into my music, I put them into shoes and they worked.

You know, people never write, "Kanye’s pissing everybody off." They try to position that through the media in some way that I’m like, "Whatever." Whatever your friends might say, you know, "I saw Kanye." "How was he? Did he…?" I care about people. I care about– my dad lived in homeless shelters less than five years ago to find out he’s a psych major. My mom was the first black female chair of the English department at Chicago State University. I was raised to do something, to make a difference.

[Applause]

To take– you know, I didn’t take the Oscars as a joke. It was funny. You know what I’m saying, it was like the moment. All black actors can talk about the glass ceilings that we’ve dealt with out in this town. And this is the moment. "You get your night. Go ahead. Chris Rock is going to do it, bam! Talk about how many times you’ve been blocked from being able to excel."

I didn’t take it as a joke. "It ain’t no joke," as Rakim said. It ain’t no joke. "I used to let the mic smoke, now I slam it and make sure it’s broke." That’s what I was raised on – Rakim, Phife Dawg, hip-hop, expression. "Hip hop started out in the park…"

Everybody’s trying to… I don’t give a fuck how much you sold, if you’re playing on radio. Are you connecting? Picasso is dead. Steve Jobs is dead. Walt Disney is dead. Name somebody living that you can name in the same breath as them. Don’t tell me about being likable.

We got 100 years here. We’re one race, the human race, one civilization. We’re a blip in the existence of the universe, and we constantly try to pull each other down. Not doing things to help each other. That’s my point. It’s like I’m shaking talking about it. I know it’s daytime TV, but I feel I can make a difference while I’m here. I feel that I can make things better through my skill set. Through my skills– I’m an artist. Five years old, art school Ph.D, Art Institute of Chicago. I am an artist. I have a condition called synesthesia where I see sounds. I see them. Everything that I sonically make is a painting. I see it. I see the importance– I see the importance in the value of everyone being able to experience a more beautiful life.

When I make clothes… It’s funny because I’ll sit there with Obama and Leo’s talking about the environment and I’m talking about clothes and everyone looks at me like, "That’s not an important issue." But I remember going to school in fifth grade and wanting to have a cool outfit. I called the head of Payless. I’m like, "I want to work with you." I want to take all this information that I’ve learned from sitting in all these fashion shows and knocking on all these doors and buying all these expensive clothes, and I want to take away bullying.

[Extended applause]

You know, I want to- Michael Jackson and Russell Simmons is the reason I was able to go so far in music. There was a time when Michael Jackson couldn’t get his video on MTV because he was considered to be "urban." The Michael Jackson. So I literally have to be Michael Jackson of apparel in order to break open the doors of everyone that will come after I’m gone. After I’m dead. After they call me "Wacko Kanye."

[Audience chuckles]

Isn’t that so funny? That people point fingers at the people who have influenced us the most. They talk the most shit about the people who cared the most. I’m sorry, daytime television. I’m sorry for the realness.

[Applause]

[Ellen DeGeneres:]
Well, it’s not daytime television anymore. We’re going to take a break and we are going to come back, we’re going to play 5 Second Rule, which should be very fun with Kanye.