Kanye West had to get something off of his chest.
While performing at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center as the latest stop on his “Yeezus” tour this week, the mercurial hip-hop star went on one of his “stream-of-consciousness” tirades; Kanye once again blasted corporations and awards shows. But this time, he specifically called out a fellow musician.
“When I went to the MTV Awards, Rick Rubin hit me, he said ‘Are you performing at the MTV Awards,’” said Kanye. “I said ‘Yeah.’ He said ‘Look man, just do your moth-f–kin song and leave. Just do your song and leave. Just do your song and leave.’ Cause sure enough I’m sitting down trying, I’m trying to enjoy mothaf–kas performing and s–t…And then they start giving out awards and s–t. And Bruno Mars win all the moth-f–kin’ awards and s–t. You know, I was just thinking about what Rick Rubin told me–cause I don’t give a f–k about no TV show. But what I care about is if you an artist and you work hard as f–k and the streets say that you deserve that s–t then can’t no moth-f–kin’ networks try to gas everybody up. So, they can sell some [product] with the prettiest moth-f–ka out.”
Kanye also mentioned his sit-down with Oprah Winfrey.
“And I sit down with Oprah and she say, ‘They scared of you, Ye. They scared of you, Ye,’” said West. “She didn’t say I wasn’t the most talented. She just said ‘You gotta learn how to fail.’ I said ‘Oprah, it’s a new day.’
“These major corporations they wanna control you,” he added. “And they take us as musicians…to hold that mothaf–kin product up and that’s what they show you. But f–k that. F–k that, that’s old school. And Oprah said ‘They scared of you Ye.’ Well, of course they should be…That’s why I’m turning up. That’s why I’m turned up. Cause I want my turn. These guys got fed off it and I want my turn.”
“You seen my interview on Jimmy Kimmel talking about how I want to do clothes, how I want support. And y’all say, ‘Why can’t he just do it by his self?’ Well, I want to let you know I signed my deal a week and a half ago,” Kanye also revealed. “But if you sell enough sneakers, you get diminishing returns because they want you to stay in that position forever.”
“They tried to make it as small as possible. ‘We don’t even know why people like the Yeezys,’ ” Kanye ranted. “They like ’em like they like the Jordans, because I was in fourth grade getting kicked out for drawing Jordans.”
