Kanye West Talks Breaking Down Walls on Seth Meyers

In five minutes, Kanye West gave viewers of Late Night With Seth Meyers a history lesson in Kanye West last night, performing a medley of seven songs stretching back to his debut, The College Dropout. His performance, viewable here, featured Jesus Walks, Touch the Sky, Stronger, Heartless, All of the Lights, Mercy and Black Skinhead. Full of fiery vocal delivery, seamless segues and a generous dose of flashing strobe lights, it was a conscious display of versatility following an interview with Meyers that focused mostly on just how versatile West is, with topics ranging from the rappers forthcoming foray into fashion to how hes like Michelangelo (the artist, not the turtle).

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One of the funnier exchanges about versatility happened when Meyers asked West about omitting curse words during his many performances on Saturday Night Live. The rapper said its just part of the job of spreading his message. Dropping cursing is the least of my worries creatively, West said. I feel like its a necessity for an artist like me, a very punk, forward artist to be on SNL that many times. Thats why I come and do talk shows so you guys have an [beep] in the matrix every now and then.

Beyond the bleeps, West said that he wants to get his message across via multiple formats, not just music. Speaking on his fight to break into the fashion world, he said that people talk to him in ways that they must have addressed past trailblazers. Its like, No Kanye, you cant run faster,' he said. This is the limit that was made. The walls that Michael Jackson broke down for you, and Jay Z and Russell Simmons broke down for you, this is the end of it. Im in the process of breaking down walls that people will understand 10 years from now, 20 years from now.

Furthermore, West explained how he interprets his own creations differently than most people. By his perception, his art is multimedia. For me, I give you paintings, sonic paintings, he said. I have synesthesia; I can see sound. So when I do fashion I just want to give you sculptures.

Its like Michelangelo, he continued. The Church wanted him to paint, and he wanted to do sculptures. The difficult thing for me that everyone doesnt understand is I just want to use marble and make sculptures. But due to the fact that Im a celebrity and all these things, theyre like, No, you cant do this. You have to do this kind of [fashion] line. Its kind of the first of its kind. Thats the reason why theres been a lot of confusion as to why I want to do it, to why hes just so frustrated about it. Like, Why doesnt he just do music? Its an overall creative expression.

But thats not to say that West cant have fun with his art. When Meyers asked him if he plans on softening his approach now that he is a father, he gave a funny, dry answer. I think artistic, intellectual kid-friendly songs, West said. He summed it up with this comparison: If you sat down and talked to Quentin Tarantino, [and asked] like, Are you going to make G-rated movies? Its Quentin Tarantino.