Few people can conjure the feelings of pomp, hype, and circumstance during interviews quite like Kanye West. Even when he's saying something which quite literally stands at direct odds with the messaging at the root of his earlier work, people are still meticulously following these discussions, often invigorated and disappointed in equal measure.
With this week's return of David Letterman's post-Late Show Netflix experiment My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, those less-than-enthused with recent West developments have plenty to study. The episode, out May 31, is already notable for its moments of touching reflection on the legacy of the late Donda West and some post-filming comments of support from the host.
Few people can conjure the feelings of pomp, hype, and circumstance during interviews quite like Kanye West. Even when he's saying something which quite literally stands at direct odds with the messaging at the root of his earlier work, people are still meticulously following these discussions, often invigorated and disappointed in equal measure.
With this week's return of David Letterman's post-Late Show Netflix experiment My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, those less-than-enthused with recent West developments have plenty to study. The episode, out May 31, is already notable for its moments of touching reflection on the legacy of the late Donda West and some post-filming comments of support from the host.
"I was frightened, honestly, because I had only met him a couple of times on the show and I knew that depending on the day, you weren't quite sure which path you were going to be on," Letterman said when looking back on the interview sessions with the Today team earlier this month. "He was working on what he calls his Sunday Service and I didn't know what to expect. We went to it early in a sound studio in Burbank and it was remarkably spiritual. It was quite moving."
Ahead of the My Next Guest Season 2 launch date, we've compiled some noteworthy moments from the West-centered episode, ranging from his controversial thoughts on Trump to an assessment of his and JAY-Z's complementary narrative stylings. Dive in below.
Kanye's parents continue to inspire him
Early in the discussion, Letterman gets West to speak candidly about his relationships with his parents, who divorced when he was a child. Speaking on the similarities in personality between himself and Ray West, Kanye cites a recent bit of wisdom he received from his father (who he says was also known to snatch up a mic) as an example.
"He started to talk about power vs. force and I think about that in all of my interactions, where you don't have to start screaming," Kanye says. "It's like, what do you have the power to do?"
His mother's death, he explains later, is "a piece of my story," and though he went through a period of questioning the higher order of things, he ultimately found acceptance. "Everything was meant to be and everything happens at the time that's planned," he tells Letterman, later recalling a Takashi Murakami-esque bear his mother gifted him during the Graduation era.
Kanye says JAY-Z is just as "self-centered" in his lyrics as he is
When Letterman breaks down an interpretation of Kanye and JAY's lyrical approaches in which JAY was described as a narrator against West's more character-based methods, West disagrees somewhat with the theory.
"I think we're both pretty self-centered in our music," he says, later elaborating on his point with a larger discussion about how the fan-artist relationship can complicate progress. "That's what we do, we tell our story and then people relate to that story."
Drake's "Crew Love" contains one of 'Ye's favorite lines, though he won't mention him by name
Despite their publicly paraded personal issues, West (without mentioning Drake directly) cites "Crew Love" when elaborating on his answer to Letterman's JAY question.
"An artist which I will not mention because I'm not allowed to mention him or any of his family members has a line, well, we had a little beef last year..." Kanye says. "He has this line that I love that says, 'I told my story and made history,' like 'made his story' and 'made history.'"
Kanye isn't backing down on the point he's trying to make about MAGA
West's Trump flirtations and outright endorsements, among other things, have complicated the fan/artist relationship post-Pablo, a division that was perhaps most apparent during the Ye cycle. As we move into the Yandhi chapters, West isn't backing down from his belief that "liberals bully people," though it's difficult not to imagine him hearing Letterman's rebuttals without pondering that line of thinking a bit deeper.
"We don't all have to feel the same way about things," he says. "This is my thing with Trump. We don't have to feel the same way but we have the right to feel what we feel and we have the right to have a conversation. A dialogue, not a diatribe, about it." When asked if he voted for Trump, West again confirms that he has never voted in his life, a fact Letterman notes doesn't put him in the best position to have a sizable effect on the actions of active voters. "Then you don't have a say in this," Letterman says.
He doesn't advocate for a uniform rejection of mental health medications
West and Letterman spend a good chunk of the interview exchanging experiences related to their own path to personal enlightenment regarding mental health. For West, his experiences with bipolar have included the effect of making him feel "a heightened connection to the universe." This state, he explains, can make a person "almost more adolescent" in their creative expression.
"It's just something that, you know, we're going to have to take time to understand," West says of continuing to remove the stigma surrounding mental health discussions. West also shouted out James Turrell's work with light healing, as well as offered fans a clarification regarding his stance on medications that may prove crucial to others.
"There's people who can't function without medication," he says. "I'm not advocating. I'm telling you my specific story." Speaking on his experience, including his 2016 hospitalization, West detailed the personal difficulties he encountered during a period of intense paranoia.
"The experience of when you go through an episode, if you actually go to the hospital, there's a moment that has to be talked about publicly so this moment can change," West said, noting he's felt "hyper-paranoid" during his experiences. Elaborating further, he explained the thoughts he's had, clarifying that these apply to his experiences and not necessarily the experiences of others.
"This is my experience . . . everyone now is an actor, everything is a conspiracy, you see everything, you feel the government is putting chips in your head, you feel you're being recorded," he said. "You feel all of these things." West then specifically mentioned his separation from his family at the hospital, telling Letterman and the audience that he wants to change that "cruel and primitive" practice.
Sunday Service will have achieved its goal when we have "world peace"
Letterman is seen in the episode paying a visit to a studio in Burbank for a Sunday Service session, a West creation that recently captivated Coachella with an immersive campgrounds performance. The host appears genuinely moved by the experience, later asking West about the endgame.
"We do our services in a circle and I removed the programmed drums... that usually hit inside of the lowest chakra, which is your sex chakra," West explains of the compositional changes that define Sunday Service, which visually carries inspiration from Kanye's previous tour with U2 and the aforementioned healing aspects of Turrell's work.
For now, West and his team are "throwing paint against the wall," though a goal has already been established: "There will be world peace."
Andy Kaufman gave 'Ye "courage" to challenge the media
Andy Kaufman, the iconic comedian and performance artist whose name was regularly evoked as a potential explanation source for the beginnings of West's MAGA era, has indeed been hugely influential in West's approach to media relations.
This pleased Letterman, who famously welcomed Kaufman to his previous show on numerous occasions.
"Gave me courage, yeah," West says when asked about Kaufman's influence. "How do you deal with the media? Here's an example! I'd far rather be an Andy Kaufman than the majority of the way people are letting the media push them around. I'm in front of the joke, the joke is on everyone else."