Aside from contributing to Jimmy Kimmel’s record-breaking ratings during his Wednesday night interview, Kanye West also managed to dominate today’s zeitgeist.
And while some may have viewed West’s comments simply as an “epic rant” of sorts or just flat out crazy, the 36-year-old actually made a few valid points about society’s current state of racism and classism.
Check out a few of our favorite quotes from Kanye’s interview below.
1
"For me, I'm a creative genius, and there's no other way to word it. I know you're not supposed to say that about yourself, and I say things the wrong way a lot of times. But my intention is always positive."
2
"Creatives have got beat up my entire life. And there's moments where I stood up to drug dealers in Chicago and said, ‘You can't have my publishing. Come and kill me. Do whatever you're gonna do, but you're not gonna bully me. You're not gonna stop me, because my mother told me to believe in myself.’"
3
“There’s no black guy at the end of the runway in Paris in all honesty [Jimmy Kimmel: "What about the Steve Harvey Collection?"] No! There’s no Steve Harvey Collection. No extra buttons on jackets or anything like that.”
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4
"If you guys look at the Zane interview, it's really something extremely fearless for someone in my position to do, because most people just bow down to TV...I could care less about any of these cameras, in all honesty. All I care about is my family."
5
“It’s not about racism anymore, it’s classism. Like Paula Deen, she was old school with it. They like, 'we don’t do it like that anymore, that’s racist. We classist now.' Classism is when they try to say, ‘You’re a rapper…your girl is on a reality show so you’re not up here with us. We’re old money.’ It’s snobbery and I’m not into all that snobbery, seriously. All we want to do is to make awesome stuff. All we want is a real shot.”
6
"Don't ask me a question about something you saw in the tabloids. Don't try to antagonize me. Because you know what? It's not safe for you in the zoo. Never think that I'm not from Chicago for one second and think you can walk up and disrespect me and my family constantly."
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7
“Media does everything they can to break artists’ spirits and I do everything to break media.”
8
“My grandfather loved Ali ’til he died and my grandmother hated Ali. So ya gonna love me, or ya gonna hate me but I’mma be me.”
9
“I wouldn’t say I’m a rap artist, I’m more of a messenger than a rapper, so when you say rap beef it kind of undermines it.”
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10
“I refuse to follow the rules that society has set up and the way that they control people with low self-esteem, with improper information, with branding, with marketing. I refuse to follow those rules. It’s about truth. It’s about information. It’s about awesomeness. And the only luxury is time, time that you spend with your family. That’s the only luxury, so the concept of luxury is improper to me.”
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