Kanye West Screengrab - H 2013
Kanye West has revealed the surprising reason behind his polarizing single, “I Am a God.”
In an interview with BBC Radio 1’s Zane Lowe about his Yeezus album, the rapper shared that he wrote the single in Paris after Saint Laurent designer Hedi Slimane said he could only attend his runway show if he didn’t go to other ones.
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West hinted his frustration with the situation in the August issue of W magazine, saying in his interview excerpted by WWD, “Cause it’s like, Yo! Nobody can tell me where I can and can’t go. Man, I’m the number-one living and breathing rock star. I am Axl Rose; I am Jim Morrison; I am Jimi Hendrix. You can’t say that you love music and then say that Kanye West can’t come to your show.”
During his conversation with Lowe, West explained of the track, “The reason why I related that to design and what we do in design is saying, ‘That’s the music that us as creatives that wanted to get into design….This is our soundtrack to our creativity.”
The rapper recalled how he and his style adviser Virgil Abloh used to “give designs to Fendi over and over, and getting our designs knocked down — brought the leather jogging pants six years ago to Fendi and they said no.” West added, “How many mother–ckers you done seen with a leather jogging pant?”
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“Yeah, he got some nice $5,000 jeans in there,” said West, referencing Slimane’s designs. “But we culture. Rap is the new rock and roll. We the rock stars. And I’m the biggest of all of them.”
With Paris Fashion Week kicking off Sept. 24, it will be interesting to see which shows West will be attending, since it’s safe to assume he won’t be invited to Saint Laurent‘s spring 2014 presentation on Sept. 30.
