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Kanye West. (Photo by Rich Fury / VF20 / Getty Images for Vanity Fair)
Kanye West finally moved on with his long-awaited appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, and the interview was as wild as fans expected.
West is a man who discusses multiple unrelated topics simultaneously; at one point, he compares his thought process to Super Mario, frantically jumping from one rapidly disintegrating cloud platform to another. It seems like a pretty appropriate analogy.
Here are 7 key takeaways from the 3-hour interview:
Kanye won’t stop talking
Joe Rogan didn’t get much of a chance to speak on this one, as West took the few questions he had and raced through them, running through various topics without reaching a coherent point.
West seems like the type of person who is always absorbing information through conversation, business, media, and memes. But he can’t quite articulate it. When West tries to answer a question, he seems to get lost on the way, taking a walk of consciousness that sometimes sounds silly, sometimes boring, and sometimes strangely profound.
It’s a bit like listening to a drunken friend who, having ingested too many stimulants, articulates every thought that passes through his brain during a long taxi ride home.
Kanye works hard
West claims to be working on multiple different projects, some of them very ambitious. Well-intentioned ideas like sustainable architecture and infrastructure, education, and product design.
While it seems likely that some of these ventures will not be successful, he goes ahead with many of them; he’s juggling a music career and a successful sneaker business in a way, as well as raising a family and playing with all these other projects. He’s like a Silicon Valley brother on steroids, a billionaire with a messianic sense of self-importance.
But West claims that he only attends meetings that interest him, so I suppose some of these projects will languish in development hell, once they get past the concept art stage.
Has strong opinions on Star Wars
One of the funniest moments of the podcast was when West declared himself a fan of the Star Warss prequels, and he seemed very unimpressed with the Disney sequel trilogy.
I must say that I am with West on this case; Give me an ambitious disaster on a calculated corporate blockbuster at any time. Artistic integrity sometimes makes for terrible movies, sure, but at least they tend to be terrible in an interesting way, unlike formulated movies.
Regardless of what you think of West, the man truly loves art and creative expression; it certainly seems to inhabit that “alternative reality” that many creatives do, capable of truly expressing themselves through music, rather than words.
He’s really, really in God
If there’s one issue West always kept focused on, it was his faith. No matter the subject, God formed the pillar of West’s thoughts, opinions, and plans. When Rogan asked a political question, West tended to respond with a vague intention of following God’s will.
West seemed to suggest that there was a great destiny forged for humanity, towards which certain entrepreneurs and artists were slowly making their way, and hinted that he was one of these chosen people: humble people.
There was a fairly intense moment when West emphasized the importance of “fearing God” and became extremely passionate, claiming that his religious faith imbues him with a courageous attitude towards life.
There is a political issue that he is very focused on
Along with the issue of religion, West also became obsessed with abortion and his fierce opposition to it. While West did not express his intention to restrict reproductive rights, he dances a bit on the subject, stating that if he comes to the office, he will focus on providing alternatives.
That said, his obsession with the subject doesn’t seem particularly healthy; West makes Mike Pence seem open-minded, when it comes to that particular topic.
His presidential career sounds strangely similar to that of Donald Trump
Towards the end of the interview, Rogan tries to dominate the meandering conversation and asks some serious questions about West’s intentions, regarding his political ambitions; He even tries to toughen West’s responses (with mixed success).
West has no doubt of his suitability for the role, stating confidently:
“I think my calling is to be the leader of the free world.”
But he never manages to articulate why. In fact, your responses indicate that you simply believe yourself worthy of an important position, because … you just do. In response to Rogan’s concerns about education and access to health care, West rambled on his faith and assured Rogan that once everything was in front of him, he would instinctively make the best decisions for the country. Sounds familiar?
The most memorable moment of the interview took place after Rogan asked what West would do in case of foreign aggression, and West freezes completely; it is obvious that he had not even considered the question.
Do you believe in … something?
The thing about Kanye West is that he’s so endearing to listen to.
He is not coherent, he is not well informed or he is particularly logical, but he seems to genuinely believe what he is saying. Also, he seems like a nice guy, with a peculiar sense of humor.
His walks manage to touch on various interesting topics, without really getting involved with them. It floats around, spitting out bits of philosophy, giving the impression that it is saying… something. And maybe it is.
Whatever your point, you don’t communicate through your speech. Taking out the man’s quotes always sounds out of context, because context is almost always missing. He’s always halfway through saying something, never finishing his point. But it expresses a genuine longing for a better world, coupled with supreme confidence in your faith and your own leadership for results.
That combination of confidence, ambition, and emotional vulnerability will spark empathy in some people, while others will dismiss the podcast as three hours of verbal diarrhea. I wouldn’t be surprised if West managed to build a Trump-style cult of personality during his next presidential run.
I wouldn’t call it informative, but Rogan’s podcast offered a more honest insight into Kanye West’s mind than any other interview I’ve seen.
