Kanye West didn’t hold back in a recent interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music Beats 1. The Chicago rapper, who just released Jesus Is King, his ninth studio album, opened up at his new ranch in Wyoming this week.
West, who considers himself the "greatest artist in existence," spoke to Zane for nearly three hours. In the interview, he reiterated his plan to one day occupy the Oval Office. He also spoke about his religion and love of family as well as how his expectations for his children with Kim Kardashian have changed now that he has embraced Christianity. “I don't think North should wear crop tops just because I had her wearing a slip dress when she was 2-years-old. I think and feel differently now, now that I'm Christian, now that I'm founder of a 3-billion-dollar organization and married for five years," he says.
The rapper also praises his relationship with Kardashian, which he calls “the greatest bond.” He says he values having, “someone that you can call on, someone you can call out, someone call you out, equally yolked, someone to complain to and someone to grow with as we grow and raise our children."
As for his legendary feud with Drake, he says all is forgotten. The two rappers, who live in the same neighborhood, now hang out. “I go to Drake's house, walk over there with no security, 'Here's my phone number.' I'm not trying to ring doorbell. He might be busy," West says. “Me and Drake had the disagreement and he refused to talk to me for 6 months. That was so painful because expressing yourself is a form of therapy for people with mental health."
Of his new album, Jesus Is King, West says it was a journey in which there were times when he asked people to make sacrifices, such as fasting and not having pre-marital sex, though it is unclear how seriously his demands were taken or if he actually expected people to comply. "But seriously there's times where I was, when I went to people that were working on other projects and said, 'Could you just work and focus on this?'" he says.
The rapper says he has moved to Wyoming because Los Angeles felt “a bit cramped for my mind.” He goes onto discuss his sex addiction, which he says started when he saw a Playboy his dad had left out when he was five, which he believes has affected nearly every choice he’s made in his life. “From age five til now, having to kick the habit and it just presents itself in the open like it's ok and I stand up and say, 'No, it's not ok,'" he says.
West adds that he has drowned much of his pain, including his mother’s passing, in his sex addiction. He also says that his mom’s death led to other situations, like the time he interrupted Taylor Swift's acceptance of the award for Best Female Video to say that despite her victory, Beyoncé still had "one of the best videos of all time."
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“When you saw me at the MTV awards, the year after my mom had passed, that was like a heroin addict with the needle coming out of my arm. Like, I don't care about living anymore and I just thank God for saving me physically, mentally, spiritually," he says.
Finally, he somewhat vaguely addresses his mental health issues, saying that he ended up hospitalized after Kim Kardashian was robbed in Paris, which is where he began reading the Bible. He mentions someone who had him committed but doesn’t give their name. “Now, this person very much well could have saved my life cause when you are in an episode you can jump off a balcony, stab your eye out, you can do a lot of things when you are ramped up like that," he says.
