Kanye West “Definitely” Thinking of Running for President, Praises Ben Carson, Gives SWISH Update

Kanye West "Definitely" Thinking of Running for President, Praises Ben Carson, Gives SWISH Update

Photo by Erez Avissar

Last week, Kanye West unveiled the second season of his Yeezy fashion line. In a new interview with Vanity Fair, he discussed his creative process, his ambitions to run for president, his admiration of Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, the current progress on Swish, and more. Check out the interview here, and find some excerpts below.

Kanye said he’s “definitely” thinking of running for president in 2020, a claim he originally made during this year’s MTV Video Music Awards.

When talking about his plans, he explicitly praised Carson:

When I run for president, I’d prefer not to run against someone. I would be like “I want to work with you.” As soon as I heard [Ben] Carson speak, I tried for three weeks to get on the phone with him. I was like this is the most brilliant guy. And I think all the people running right now have something that each of the others needs. But the idea of this separation and this gladiator battle takes away from the main focus that the world needs help and the world needs all the people in a position of power or influence to come together.

He talked about the positive reaction he received to the VMAs announcement:

Especially from the six years of this misconception or the six years I went through of “We don’t like Kanye.” And then as soon as I said that, it was like, “Wait a second, we would really be into that, because actually if you think about it, he’s extremely thoughtful. Every time he’s ever gotten in trouble, he was really jumping in front of a bullet for someone else. He’s probably the most honest celebrity that we have.” I didn’t approach that because I thought it would be fun. It wasn’t like, Oh, let’s go rent some jet skis in Hawaii. No, the exact opposite. I sit in clubs and I’m like, Wow, I’ve got five years before I go and run for office and I’ve got a lot of research to do, I’ve got a lot of growing up to do. My dad has two masters degrees. My mom has a PhD, she used to work at Operation PUSH. Somehow the more and more creative I get, the closer and closer I get to who I was as a child. When I was a child, I was holding my mom’s hand at Operation PUSH. I think it’s time. Rap is great.

It’s fun. It’s fun to be a rock star, and I’ll never not be one I guess, but there’ll be a point where I become my mother’s child. With all the things I’ve done that people would consider to be accomplishments, what’s the point where I become the person that Donda and Raymond West raised? My parents’ child.

Kanye also said “I hate politics. I’m not a politician at all. I care about the truth and I just care about human beings. I just want everyone to win, that’s all I can say…”

He also talked about “Fade”, his new song with Post Malone and Ty Dolla $ign that played during the Yeezy presentation:

We had a couple options and I just thought it sounded good against the people. For the 40 theaters across the globe, for the kids that all went to see it in theaters, I thought they’d be happy to hear some new music. I’ve been doing that [making a new album] too. That’s like a sonic landscape, a two-year painting. That song I played has been a year and a half in the making and it may be still a year from being complete. But it was to let people get a glimpse at the painting.

Later, he reaffirmed that his upcoming album is still called Swish. ["I'm forgetting even what the last name of it was now."] When asked if the new album was a year away from completion, he said, “I’m not sure. I’m not worried about the years. I’m worried about the life and the body of work that I can put out while I’m breathing.”

Revisit the video for “Only One”:

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