If Vegas made odds on Kanye West accomplishing something, you don’t want to bet against that. If he decides he’s going to do something, he’s going to do it. There’s one thing I’ve learned about him over the years: you do not bet against him. He’s had so many amazing performances, and he always comes through with. To sing it and get up there and just murder it. It’s a long ass song, like a lot of lyrics, and especially when you’ve just written something. That’s what he does over and over again.Īnd then taking it from that to performing it on the MTV Music Awards. You could feel in the room that something strange and different and wonderful was happening. Maybe it was a different form of inspiration. It wasn’t so much inspiring as like…you could feel it. When he was just tapping on his MPC making that bassline for like an hour straight. “Love Lockdown” for sure was an inspirational moment. It wasn’t so much different from the other times of just having the bravery. On 808s, it was less about that and more about his true expression, so just the fact that he was going down that road. He can always mix the culture and he knows what at the time will go together really amazingly. He’s usually the mastermind of putting, like, Bon Iver and Rick Ross in the same room. There were guests on there, but it wasn’t so much a collaborative album. His team of people around him, we’re already sold. This was a very unusual turn for him to take. A lot of people were scared of what was happening. This wasn’t such a passionate need to sell kind of thing. More than anything, to stick to your guns and win people over with your passion and enthusiasm. He always inspires people with his passion for what he wants to do. Was there a specific moment during the recording of 808s & Heartbreak that you can recall Kanye inspiring people in the studio?
We sat there and created the show and went on with it in full force, so that was really inspiring and it gave me a clue that I didn’t have before about what that guy was made of. That was the first time I realized how strong that motherfucker is. I’m sure it was surreal for everybody to feel for him and what he was going through. It was early on in my relationship with him, so the impact was like… surreal. Not to speak for him, but it was many months that lead up to him putting that piece together and we did it so quickly.ĭo you remember the moment when he received the news on tour? He went on as a tribute to his mother and in the months leading up to that album, I think he mapped out a lot of the emotions and the message that he wanted to communicate through that album.
I think it was therapeutic for him, we did that in the shows too leading up to 808s.
We did it so fast, so it was very clear to him what he wanted to do. Kid Cudi To Kanye West: "I'm Not One Of Your kids.