Kanye West Says He’s Not a Celebrity, He’s an Activist

Kanye West says he's an activist. “I’m not a celebrity, I’m an activist,” said Kanye West in his recent interview with the New York Times' T Magazine. "The fact that when I see truth it's really hard for me to sit back and just allow it to happen in front of me on my clock makes me, a lot of times, a bad celebrity."

In the profile piece, the Chitown MC spoke on how his wife Kim Kardashian and his daughter North West have really helped him deal with his anger. He says before them there was only his ego. "I feel like now I have an amazing wife, a supersmart child and the opportunity to create in two major fields. Before I had those outlets, my ego was all I had," he said. He also discussed going into debt to fund his 2012 ready-to-wear women's collection. "I gained because I had the privilege to be educated," West said. "I had enough of a value to be able to go into debt, and that was a blessing. Some people don't even have the opportunity to be able to go into debt."

Read the interview in its entirety here. Check out some of the quotes that stood out below.

On the success of the Yeezus tour

"I would scream — 'Look at this mountain I just made! You don't think I can make a T-shirt? Look at everyone in the audience — we're selling $300,000 worth of T-shirts every night!'"

On his future goal

"Before the Internet, music was really expensive. People would use a rack of CDs to show class, to show they had made it. Right now, people use clothes to telegraph that. I want to destroy that. The very thing that supposedly made me special — the jacket that no one could get, the direct communications with the designers — I want to give that to the world."

On owning his own boutique 

"I dreamed, since I was a little kid, of having my own store where I could curate every shoe, sweatshirt and color. I have sketches of it. I cried over the idea of having my own store."

On his ego

"I have this table in my new house. They put this table in without asking. It was some weird nouveau riche marble table, and I hated it. But it was literally so heavy that it took a crane to move it. We would try to set up different things around it, but it never really worked. I realized that table was my ego. No matter what you put around it, under it, no matter who photographed it, the douchebaggery would always come through."

On meeting Ralph Lauren

"Do you know what he said when he did that? 'This is my son.' And I was thinking, 'I knew it! I knew Ralph was my daddy!'"

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