Kanye West Motivation: The Only Way To Embrace Your Inner Genius!

When I had my accident, I found out at that moment nothing in life is promised except death.

When someone comes up and says something like, "I am a god," everybody says, "Who does he think he is?" I just told you who I thought I was. A god! I just told you! That's who I think I am.

To this date, they do not understand who I am. They will not understand till after I'm gone.

He's an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, fashion designer, and entrepreneur. He's among the most acclaimed musicians of the 21st century and is one of the best-selling artists of all time. He's also been included in a number of the Forbes annual lists. He's Kanye West, and here's my take on his top 10 rules for success, volume 2. And as always, guys, if you hear something that really resonates with you, please leave it down in the comments below. Put quotes around it as well so other people can be inspired. Also, when you write it down, you're much more likely to lock it in for yourself as well. Enjoy.

Man, I just had the hunger. Like, my mother never raised me to ask for a handout. Like, a lot of people that got into this game, They walking around with somebody else's chain on or driving somebody else's car and didn't even pay for the shoes that they got on their feet. My mother had a decent job, you know what I'm saying? But she gave me a little allowance, $15, $20 a week, and I had to go out and get my own job at age 15. Matter of fact, at 14, I was cutting hair in a barbershop. So it was instilled in me to go out and just get it. And that made me be a leader around a lot of Black men. Like even my father had, I had two fathers in my life. I had my real father that I was in contact with and my stepfather that stayed there with my mother. And everybody was instilling that responsibility in me that nothing in life is given to you. A lot of times I feel like a lot of people just rapping 'cause it's free. You know what I'm saying? What you gotta do, especially now with Jay writing his rhymes in his head, people ain't gotta pay for paper no more. Now everybody just feel like they finna just, you know what I'm saying, come out and be a rapper out the blue. At least with a production, you had to go up and figure out a way to get your equipment up and, go buy records and do different things. So I'm talking about the work ethic is so serious. And up here at Baseline, up at the Rock, people work. The work ethic is crazy. That's why I feel like we killing the game right now. That's why we cutting edge. That's why we on Flex every week, just questioning labels. That's why all you hear practically is the Rock. When I had my accident, I found out at that moment nothing in life is promised except death. If you had the opportunity to play this game of life, you need to appreciate every moment. A lot of people don't appreciate their moment until it's past. And then you got to tell those Al Bundy stories. You remember when I But, um, right now is my time and my moment. Thanks to the fans, thanks to the accident, thanks to God, thanks to Rockefeller, Jay-Z, Dame Dash, G, my mother, Rhyme Fest, everyone that's helped me. And I plan, I plan to celebrate.

I plan to celebrate and scream and pop champagne every chance I get, 'cause I'm at the Grammys, baby!

I know, I know, every— I know everybody asked me the question. They wanted to know what kind— I know he's gonna wild out and he's gonna do something crazy. Everybody want to know what I would do if I didn't win. I guess we'll never know.

You don't realize I am so frustrated. Like, I am so frustrated. Like, I am so— I've got so much I want to give. I've got ideas on color palettes. I've got ideas on silhouettes. And I've got a million people telling me why I can't do it. You know, that I'm not a real designer. I'm not this. I'm not a real rapper either. I'm not a real musician either. Like, I don't know how to play the piano. Like I'm an artist. I went to art college. I went to art college and was looked at like I'm soft 'cause I like wore like Italian clothes.

You know what I'm saying?

When I'm rapping in front of Cam'ron and my pants is tight, trying to spit a verse for Cam. You know, so that's the same when I'm sitting there, you know, like sitting there at a fashion show, like, I'm there because I appreciate Phoebe Philo. I appreciate Raf Simons. I appreciate Riccardo Tisci. And I look at them as my peers, as creative people who dedicate their entire life to making something better for the world. Is that me? Let me explain what anybody that knows an artist and you know someone that's giving that. If you know an artist, there's only one thing you can say, give, or ask them when you see them.

There are two words.

Thank you.

There's no, why didn't you do this? Yo, I want that. What's up? No, we dedicate our entire life to making our current time in civilization better, to adding something to the culture. And there is only two words that you can say: thank you.

And you've kind of equated yourself to all these different people, you know, Da Vinci, Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, Michelangelo. And he's asked, how would you define a genius in that context? But also, why do you feel the need to call yourself that?

Because otherwise I'm called celebrity, I'm called nigger, I'm called rapper.

And when they use the word celebrity, nigger, or rapper, it's not in a positive way. And all these things, all those words can be used in an extremely positive way. What's up, my nigga? You know, but that's not the way it's used. So I have to define who I am, you know. All of my aspirations are things that currently only 60-year-old white people do. So I have to redefine and let people know exactly who I am. And it's not letting them know by wearing a suit or letting them know by wearing a Rolex or letting them know by bragging about how much money a sponsorship made on top of a rap. Is letting them know by saying, "Let's start with this. I'm a creative genius." And it's proven, and I will continue to prove it.

And you know, 6 albums, original albums of your own, a Throne record, various records with good music to talk about, man. But seriously, Yeezus. Bravo, dude. I mean, that is one of the most creative records of any genre I've heard in a very, very long time. And you know, just in terms of your output, your most exciting sounding record, I think, man.

Oh, thank you very much. Yeah, I feel, you know, I was able to start just making exactly what was in my mind again and not having to speak with the textures of the time. Because, you know, Cruel Summer is definitely Kanye West, and there's something kind of weird and off about Mercy, like when it has the high-pitch, uh-uh, that type of sound. It sounds like art still a little bit, even though it obviously was a radio smash, but it's still When I get into the idea, like the trap drums and things like that, or certain songs that are blatant radio hits, it's like I'm speaking with today's textures. And that's, you know, and you look, if you look at it 200 years from now, it's not gonna stand out in the way that 808s or Yeezus stands out and completely can push or redefine or make people say, you know, hey, I completely hate that, or I completely love that, but let me just think differently because everybody is like bound to these, you know, no pun intended, they're bound to 16 bars and 8 bars and the normal radio thing. I was talking to Frank Ocean about this and said, my mom got arrested for the sit-ins and now we're more like the sit-outs, like sit off of radio and say, hey radio, come to us. We need to find something new because it's being controlled in a way and manufactured in a way that, you know, really awesome, you know, artists, you know, can make amazing music and not break as far past as like something that's very like formulaic.

So it almost feels like a duty to you in a weird way, having the people's ear, having people's attention and for great music to be able to say, well, if I'm not challenging them, if I'm not challenging myself, not challenging radio, what am I doing?

Yeah, well, I'm not trying to regurgitate myself. I showed people that I understand how to make perfect. You know, dark fantasy could be considered to be perfect. You know, I say, I know how to make perfect, but that's not what I'm here to do. I'm here to crack and crack the pavement and make new grounds, you know, sonically and in society, culturally. Some people say everyone was born an artist and society, their parents, they beat it out of them. You know, there's times, there was someone after I said I was gonna run for president, that showed me like a videotape of somebody making fun of me about that concept. And I was thinking like, wow, if this person was doing this from my age of 3, I would have never been me. And, you know, people say geniuses are kids with good parents. So, how do you nurture the things that people would call weird and to something that could be considered to be, to something that would be exceptional? Like, so many movies are based on this anti-hero that's up against all odds doing the exceptional.

I was always rapping, and it just so happened that really, really phenomenal rappers got to rap on my beats before I got a chance to. So that pushed me into the classification of a producer. But I'm a rapper from the heart. Like, I got something to say, you know what I'm saying? And people like, yo, what you finna rap about? You never sold crack out your house or put a gat to her mouth and put your fist to your spouse. So how you gonna move the crowd? I bet $1,000 that you get booed out. You know what I'm saying? Like, now the rap game has changed so much. It go from Tribe Called Quest to Onyx to Swiss Beatz to Rockefeller to the Bad Boys. So many different sounds, and it's, you know, it's like almost playing like double dutch. Like, where do you get in the game? You like trying to like, yo, how does my style fit into what I'm doing right now? So I'm lucky that I had the opportunity to have a plateau to stand on now that my style of beats is the most popular style on the radio right now. Now that I turn on and hear beats that I could have sworn I did them, but I just didn't get no check for it. That's a Swizz Beatz quote right there. I could have sworn I did the beat, I just didn't get no check for it. So now that my style is— now it's like the world can accept me. It's a lot of people, it's like you just gotta get in where you fit in. You never know how you get in. You might be somebody's guy and you end up being better than that person and shining over that person. Or you might be an intern or It's like, the question is, how do you get into this industry? How do you get into the shoes I'm in right now? I'm just happy to be here. But as an artist, like, I'm not finna waste this opportunity. I'm finna take this to the next level. Like, I remember when Pac first got out of jail and said, "Yo, man, Snoop is killing the game, I'm finna take Death Row to the next level." I'm like, "What? Tupac finna do better than Snoop?

Come on now." But now look, We got this new thing called classism. It's racism's cousin. This is what we do to hold people back. This is what we do. And we got this other thing that's also been working for a long time where you don't have to be racist anymore. It's called self-hate. It works on itself. It's like real estate of racism, where just like that, when someone comes up and says something like, "I am a god," everybody says, "Who does he think he is?" I just told you who I thought I was, a god. I just told you, that's who I think I am. Would it have been better if I had a song that said, "I am a nigga"? Or if I had a song that said, "I'm a gangster"? Or if I had a song that said, "I am a pimp"? All those colors and patinas fit better on a person like me, right? But to say you are a god, especially when you got shipped over to the country that you're in and your last name is a slave owner's How could you say that? How could you have that mentality?

I mean, I know in the past you've talked about like, you know, building hotels, doing things that are beyond people's normal frame of reference. Yeah, they know you as Kanye West, an artist. They know that you're moving into fashion, but these things, I guess, in a way, are hard for people to comprehend because they don't have that level of drive. Do you know what I mean? Has it always been like this for you? Have you always felt like You can set your mind to anything and you will achieve it ultimately.

I always felt like I could do anything.

That's the main thing people are controlled by—

thoughts, their perception of themselves. They're slowed down by their perception of themselves. If you're taught you can't do anything, you won't do anything. I was taught I could do everything, and I'm Kanye West at age 36. So just watch the next 10 years.

Originally, I went to art school. I had scholarships at a bunch of different art schools. Everybody thought I was going to be an artist.

When did you do some of these pieces right here?

Back, um, '94, '95. Most of these are like this.

Okay, what's this? You got a blue ribbon on this one.

That's because I won.

Congratulations.

I remember this. I was really into anime and Japanese art.

This one is kind of eerie.

It was a good, um, exercise that the teacher gave us, and it's not very good, but since it was a dude looking like he was dead, I just put my name on it and put 1977 to 1995, which is the year which I actually drew it. And somebody should have killed me for how bad this actually was.

But, but this is almost like a premonition of a sort of, because, you know, you were like this at the end of your car accident. You were in the bed like this and you you thought was your deathbed.

Right. So I would never draw myself dead ever again.

You ever find time to do this anymore?

Seldomly. Now drawing, I just use it as a language. Like, I want it to look like this. I love to draw, but I just love music more. See, my thing about the drawings is I couldn't turn them up loud enough. I wanted to do something where people have it on all the time. And basically now what my music is, is a soundtrack to millions of people's lives. You couldn't get that feeling from art school. I couldn't get it.

39-year-old Kanye West talking to you right now. Play this shit back in 10 years. I build things that mean things to people. I make the Christmas presents. To this date, they do not understand who I am.

They don't.

They will not understand till after I'm gone. So you ask me who do I look up to? I'm like, I'm inspired by Walt Disney. I'm inspired by Howard Hughes. I'm inspired by Henry Ford. I'm inspired by Steve Jobs.

For me, money is not my definition of success.

Inspiring people is a definition of success.

Doing things to the maximum.

I want to change the definition of status quo.

And that's what I want.

I want my shoes, I want as many people to be able to have them as possible. Because in 100 years from now, everyone in this room will be dead. And what did you do while you were here?

Thank you guys so much for watching. I'd love to know what did you think of this video and what do you think in general about the Volume 2 series? Leave it down in the comments below. I'm super curious to find out. Also, I'd love to know what did you learn from Kanye in this video? What lesson stuck out the most for you that you're going to immediately apply to your life or to your business somehow, please leave it in the comments below and I'll join in the discussion. Finally, I want to give a quick shout out to Michael. Thank you so much, Michael, for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. It really, really, really means a lot to me and I hope you're enjoying the read. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love.

I'll see you soon. I remember back in grammar school, we used to have rap groups, and I had to write the raps for all the rap groups. I remember this one time, we was trying to do a talent show. This is where I learned, pick your audience, you know what I'm saying? Like, you gotta figure out who you are actually rapping to, because I had my music teacher, who was my favorite teacher in the world, Ms. Morgan, and you know what I'm saying, she was It's kind of like the Lane Bryant size or whatever, you know what I'm saying? We got up there and we thinking we finna perform Fat Girls Are Back for the talent show. So of course we didn't make it. At that point I was like, you know what I'm saying, figure out who you rapping to.

It's like, do I worry about being in the public eye and raising kids?

Yeah.

Any situation you're in, you're gonna worry about raising kids. But it's champagne problems too. There's people who can't feed their kids. That's something more to worry about. So I'm not gonna sit here and complain about the so-called issues I have. These aren't real issues. There's people at war. There's people trying to make it to London right now.

You know what I mean?

It's like, it's really fucking serious. You guys talking to me about like some celeb shit, you know? That's not real shit, you know what I mean? It's fine and stuff.

I'm mad, I'm upset, I'm this, man. Oh, they got that wrong about me.

About me. You know what? I'm alive. I'm breathing.

I did a show.

We selling.

We doing a second collection. I got no problems.