In a recent interview with San Francisco’s 106 KMEL, Kanye West revealed one of his motivations for partnering up with fellow emcee Jay Z for the 2011 collaborative album Watch The Throne. According to ‘Ye, while recording the album, he says he hoped he would learn a thing or two from the rapper he felt was the person with “the best social skills” at that particular time.
In addition to crafting his social skills with help from Jay, Kanye revealed that he also received help in that area from fiancée, Kim Kardashian.
“One of the reasons that I did Watch The Throne with Jay wasn’t just to do a dope album, which we did, it was because Jay Z has the best social skills of anyone that I know,” the Windy City wordsmith said. “Of anyone that I knew at that time. And I wanted to learn from him…Just to knock the edge off and learn from Jay. And then God has now given me another master of the social skills, my girl. She’s like the number one socialite in the world.”
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Kanye further commented on his relationship with Kardashian and credited the paparazzi, who he’s had a number of run-ins with, for the couple’s influential status.
“I have never loved any girl other than my mother as much as I love my girlfriend,” said ‘Ye. “And I’m so happy to be with her, for us to live this life together. And with our relationship with God to be able to live forever in heaven together, too. And also to raise a family, a strong family…She’s been spending her whole check on clothes since she was 16, just like me. And that’s the reason why both of us are the most influential…I think me and my girl are extremely influential greatly due to the paparazzi.”
Following a Twitter feud with late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, Kanye appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” at the top of the month to discuss his rift with Kimmel, among other topics.
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When asked if there was anything he didn’t have the opportunity to address while on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Kanye revealed that he would have liked to have spoken further on his “creative genius” comments.
“One thing that I said that I don’t think I hit all the way out of the park on ‘Jimmy Kimmel,’ I said ‘I’m a creative genius [or] whatever,’” the Chicago rapper said. “And what I was kinda trying to say is like, ‘Don’t just look at me as a celebrity or a musician or this and that.’ Which there are creative geniuses that are celebrities and musicians. But I understand that I’ve got something more to give. But one thing I really wanted to help explain was the thing—my creative genius is creating around geniuses. Using creative geniuses to express. Getting out of their way. If someone’s more talented than me at stage design, at art direction, at playing the guitar, at production, at rapping, at anything that it is, I will step out of their way.”
During his October 9 interview with Kimmel, West referenced his interview with BBC Radio 1 prior to labeling himself a “creative genius.”
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“I’m not running for office,” the rapper said. “I’m just here to make good music and make people feel good when they hear my music. When I did that interview [with BBC Radio 1], I was really vocal about a lot of the things I’ve been dealing with over the past 10 years, in classification of just a celebrity, because for me, I’m a creative genius. There’s no other way to word it.”
