Top 110 Kanye Quotes

I don’t know if he remembers, but the first time I ever met Cudi was the first time I met Kanye. I’ve never told anyone this, but it was the same day. That was the first time I was around G.O.O.D. Music at all. I was sitting like, ‘Man, I’m in the presence of ‘Ye and Cudi. This is the art level where I want to be.’

I love Kanye West. I think he’s a visionary. He’s one of those people for whom I separate his personality from his artistry.

I have a soft spot for him because he’s such a free spirit, and people just beat him up, and he’s just trying to be him, so I do have a little soft spot for Kanye.

I always make fun of Kanye West.

My theory is if Tony Williams can sing, and if Kanye West can sing, so can I! So I try!

I love Kanye for that. Being a producer, making beats, and being a rapper. He does it all.

I’ve always been able to defend Kanye.

I love Kanye.

I’ve got a variety of things I like to listen to. I like R&B. I like Chris Brown. I like Nas. I like Jay Z. Rick Ross. Kanye West. I try to mix it up.

Kanye inspires me through his work ethic and his approach.

I miss Kanye. I miss him around; I miss his brilliant energy. Keeps you really motivated… I love it. I love it! He is always ahead of the times. He is inspiring.

I’m a minimalist, for sure. A couple homies saw Kanye West’s crib with barely anything in it and thought it looked weird. To me, it looks perfect. Clutter gives me anxiety.

I will tell you, I feel very, very bad for Kanye West. He’s not well, and that is the very foundation of everything he says.

Kanye is always going to be Kanye. He is always going to be outspoken. He’s always going to say exactly how he feels.

Whatever Kanye tells me, I just try to put it in my little machine and make the perfect solution for it. That’s always our collab formula, and that’s just how ‘Gorgeous’ came about.

I think that my biggest influences are electronic acts. Daft Punk is probably my number 1, then Kanye West would be number 2 after that.

It’s great to watch people come up and help mold their careers. I really took it literal when Kanye said, ‘Listen to the kids, bruh.’ That really means something.

Kanye on the track and LeBron. That’s fire.

Kanye West does not represent all black people.

Every time I get dressed, I try to channel a little bit of Kanye West and a little bit of Sailor Moon.

I’m really impressed every time Kanye comes to perform at ‘SNL’ because he finds a new way to make that space work for him.

My favorite rappers are, I can’t really say. I like Kanye because he’s so creative. He’ll just do anything. I like what Kanye’s bringing to the game. Lil Wayne. I like Wayne.

I listened to a lot of Jay-Z and Kanye coming up, which would be unexpected for a boy bander like me. But I’d listen to a lot of that, and a lot of Ed Sheeran, actually.

Chicago, we always had it. People just shied away because it’s nothing businesswise from the industry. Everybody from Chi will go to N.Y.C. or L.A. – R. Kelly to Kanye to even Twista. Everybody is great from there, but it’s nothing downtown.

I think it would be different to work with a guy like Kanye West or Jay-Z, those guys are so phenomenal, but just to work with a rapper, I don’t think is really my thing. I really like songs, like true songs. Like indie songs.

When Kanye gets to a point where he can actually put a couple of notes together either vocally or two bars of valid music playing an instrument, then he might have a right to criticize somebody else.

I’ma work with Kanye. I’ma try my damndest.

Kanye West deceives many and will lead many people astray.

People pay attention to artists and celebrities, so they have the opportunity to do something great with this limelight. I, for one, have no problem with Kanye running for president, because if it’s something that he truly believes in and it can lead to greater good, why not? I’m all for that.

In DC, it’s really edgy to listen to Kanye West or Jay-Z, and it’s a thing to know who Azzedine Alaia is – you know what I mean? But I do care about issues, and I was really political in high school, always marching.

To be able to do a song with Kanye West and then a video with Hype Williams who directed the video, that’s a highlight of any artist’s’ career.

I’m a young dude from Chicago who grew up with Kanye as my image of hip-hop. Finding your voice in a room where you have to challenge Kanye is scary – but it’s also life-affirming.

It was probably in third grade – I had a super-fake gold herringbone chain. Yeah man, it was, like, super fake. I don’t remember if it was my mom’s or how I got it, but ever since then, I’ve loved chains. The first real chain I got was from Kanye. It was a Jacob the Jeweler Kanye West Jesus piece.

Being an artist doesn’t just mean you have a song. That doesn’t make you an artist. The word ‘artist’ means so many different things, and I feel like to be a real one, you really have to do it all. The people that I think of as artists – Tyler the Creator, Childish Gambino, Kanye West – are doing the most.

It could be interesting doing something with Kanye.

Anytime you see Beyonce, Jay Z, Kanye West. Anytime a young black person’s doing good, that’s motivation for everybody else. Anytime, anytime, it’s motivation. Use that fuel to push you forward. That’s what I did.

When I was on Arsenio Hall’s show, he asked me about working with Kanye West or John Legend. I said I’d love to.

The work ethic behind everything Kanye does is crazy. It’s greatness. He told me, ‘We’re not just rappers, we’re artists.’

What I love about Kanye is that he doesn’t fit the mould either. He does what he feels.

I love ‘Watch the Throne,’ because Kanye was acting so ratchet.

I always heard 50 Cent, Da Brat, Lil’ Kim, all that in the house. My mom’s playing them – 50 Cent, Kanye West.

My musical tastes go from Zeppelin to Bob Dylan to Kanye West and Lil’ Wayne. Anything modern and progressive.

It just makes you a better artist when you’re with people who are great artists themselves. Being around Kanye, soaking up all the knowledge, all the stuff he got.

I think Kanye West is a hilarious writer.

Even with G.O.O.D. Music, we have artists that have done very well, and we’ve had artists that haven’t. Being attached to Kanye is only going to get you so far. You’ve still got to have the records and the talent and the artistry on your own to carry it.

I think I have kind of have the same mind-set that Kanye West has. He just likes to do his thing.

My favorite Kanye album is ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.’

The Kardashians are walking clickbait – but let’s look closer. Do Kim and Kanye affect how society feels about interracial relationships and blended families?

Someone did a graphic of me in my jersey, and Jordan, they dubbed him guarding me, and Kanye’s face was on both of us. That’s my favorite meme of all time – or so far to-date. I’m gonna have to get that blown up on my wall or something.

Do something active that’s fun. On tour with Kanye and Common, we would have basketball games on a court in every city we went to. With Alicia Keys, we would mountain-bike across Vancouver Island. With Lady Gaga, we would explore all the cool neighborhoods.

Much as my Boomer friends will hate me for saying this, Kanye West is the New Dylan. Not only do Kanye’s best lyrics match Dylan’s prescience, highly inventive word-play and genius for storytelling, his indefatigable cockiness eerily channels Muhammad Ali.

If it’s time to party, it’s time for hip hop. I love Drake, Jay-Z, Kanye. If I’m chilling at home though, I’m listening to Massive Attack, Thievery Corporation, Radiohead, DJ Shadow. I also listen to a lot of classical.

I don’t think I ever wanted to be like Kanye in personality. I think I definitely want to, have always wanted to, have his boldness or assurance in myself.

For my style influences you’ve got to look at Kanye first. Pharrell when I was growing up, too.

All I really want is a beat from Kanye West. I’ve met him, and I think he’s real cool with us. If I get that beat, I’m going to rap the best verse I ever dropped – even if it’s his worst beat.

My take, after spending some time with him, is that Kanye West is not a conservative. He’s not a Republican, but he is a free thinker, and he’s an independent thinker.

Drake and Kanye, y’all gotta move out of the way. I’m younger than y’all. I look better than y’all. I got more swag than y’all. And it just is what it is. I’m here to take it. I’m the new best rapper.

As a hip-hop artist who likes fashion, who can’t help but notice people like Kanye West, Tiger, Big Sean and definitely T.I.P. These guys really understand how to be progressive and fashion forward.

That’s why the Kanye Wests and the Drakes are just in a different league, because they have the ability to be vulnerable and open.

Here’s Kanye, the great musical genius of his generation in hip hop, but, like, society really can’t even deal with him because he’s always saying something that people go, ‘Oh, I can’t believe Kanye said that. I can’t believe he did that.’

I’m heavily influenced by a lot of people like Dre, Pharrell, and Kanye. They’re all big-time tastemakers and trendsetters, just for culture, period. So I strive to do that as well.

Kanye took me from a kid who listened to music to a kid who lived music.

G.O.O.D. Music is just real tastemakers, man. Kanye’s a real tastemaker. One thing that I feel is tight about G.O.O.D. is that a lot of people have their own style, and you can see that. My style is different than Pusha’s, it’s different than Cudi’s. But it’s also slightly similar ’cause we have some similar tastes.

His belief in the power of music to convey ideas – not just entertain – has filtered down to musicians in every field, from alt-rock to hip-hop, from Bruce Springsteen and U2 to Arcade Fire and Kanye West. Popular music is different because of Johnny Cash.

The first time I really listened to an album and thought, ‘This album is mine,’ was Kanye’s ‘Late Registration.’

You come to my studio, it says ‘No photography on premises.’ I picked that up from Kanye. We don’t need all that. In the old days in the Wu, we didn’t allow anybody in the studio, not even women. We didn’t start allowing women until five years after our debut. ODB used to get mad.

Like, I always knew I wanted a Kanye West feature and a Jay-Z feature. I knew that starting in the game when it wasn’t even realistic to happen. I already knew who I wanted to do records with.

Kanye’s the best listener I’ve ever worked with. If I interrupt Kanye, every single time, he’ll wait for me to finish before speaking. It’s a running joke – sometimes I interrupt him just to see. And he always goes, ‘No, no, finish. I want to hear what you have to say.’

I’d love to get in a room with Kanye at some point, have a conversation, and see if something cooks up.

My favorite rappers are a lot of other people’s favorite rappers. I love Jay Z, Kanye, 2Pac, Biggie, old Mos Def.

I love the Kanye West, I respect the Kanye West, but his wife look like fat penguin. She eat too much cheeseburger and she have no moderation.

I only think one person is really cool, and that’s Kanye.

I remember going backstage on a random night and Kanye goes, ‘Ayo Premier, I’m about to drop an album called ‘College Dropout’ and I’m rapping on the whole thing. And as I soon it drop it’s gonna go double platinum.’ I looked at him like, ‘That’s a bold statement to make if you never rapped before.’

Look at Daft Punk and Kanye West. The song ‘Stronger’ was inspired by a Daft tune. Once the hip-hop scene opens up to all the great music that came out of dance, it will continue to spread to the more mainstream audience.

Kanye is going to have to decide early whether or not he’s a Baby Bjorn guy, because the minute you put on that Baby Bjorn, there’s no turning back. It’s like buying a minivan. You lose a little piece of yourself when you get that Baby Bjorn.

What Autotune allows is for people like myself and Kanye West not to depend on the singer. Back in the Fifties, the songwriter was rendered invisible. Now the songwriter is there in the forefront.

The first time I was pregnant, Kanye and I were dating, and I was just being introduced to the world of fashion. I wanted to work with a bunch of different stylists, and when you work with a new stylist, everyone wants to possess your look.

I think whenever you’re around Kanye, you gotta take notes. The advice is taking notes, because everything he does and everything he says is very detailed and very up front. He’s always one hundred what he says.

I’ve seen Jay-Z and Kanye West. I’ve seen actors like Tom Hanks and Nicholas Cage.

The word we have in Korea for K-Pop is ‘Gaio.’ And I guess it’s a huge umbrella term. Basically it’s like saying Coldplay and Kanye West, or Eminem and Celine Dion, are the same genre.

Kanye’s the best. He really, really is. He’s cool. And why we’ve always gotten along is because we can just sit down and talk about art.

I think Kanye West is brilliant at what he does: he’s got a different live show, different merch for every tour, different vibes, and he just puts out great records.

Kanye and T.I. both engage with what I’m doing.

I have Kanye’s ego to some extent.

I just respect Kanye as an artist.

You won’t find me at parties or the openings of movies and I don’t hang around with David Beckham and Kanye West. So the paparazzi leave me alone, which means that I can do my shows, write music and then live a normal life.

I knew Kanye way before he was signed.

I rock with Chance, I rock with Kanye, I rock with Common.

I definitely want to work with Kanye, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande – all the big people.

I feel like I’m the Kanye of the NFL.

I think Kanye West is – people don’t give him the credit he deserves for what he has brought to our generation.

My favorite artists are Kanye West, Jay Z, the Fugees, Lauryn Hill, Destiny’s Child.

I loved everything, but it was Kanye West who really changed everything for me.

Meeting Kanye West was a blessing.

I had an advantage because people would post me on blogs because I had co-signs from Kanye West, Def Jam, and G.O.O.D. Music. Everything I put out, the blogs would put up. When I realized that, I used that to my advantage and helped build my following on my own.

Kanye looks for the best in everything.

I’m no longer the young guy in No I.D.’s studio asking for Kanye beats.

I was on Kanye’s Yeezus tour as a dancer, but really, I was a Vanessa Beecroft model. I was one of the three ‘dancers’ who couldn’t dance and was more of an accessory than an individual. Vanessa was pretty involved. Her style is about a lot of standing. It’s very simple but haunting.

I like Kanye and Kendrick Lamar.

I love Kanye, I love what he does musically, I love his ability to push the envelope.

The only people playing the roles of classic rock stars are hip-hop artists, now. Kanye’s stage persona, and the way he approaches making albums, and the way he wants to be better than everyone else? That’s reminiscent of Freddie Mercury. That’s reminiscent of the Beatles.

The only person I’ve worked with on my album was Kanye. And between the stuff that I’ve done and the stuff that he’s assisted on and produced for me for this album, I don’t even need anything else.

If you look at things historically, Kanye West has really represented the battering ram against political correctness.

Kanye and Pharrell are in fashion. Why not J Balvin?

I don’t know. I respect Kanye, but when it comes to Trump, I’m not into that, man.

I met Kim Kardashian the other week, and she knew who I was! I walked in the room, and she was like, ‘I should text Kanye saying you’re here; he showed me your music.’ It’s really hard to digest. Also, I don’t think you should digest stuff like that.

It’s incredibly cool that R & B artists like Kanye and the Weekend, who from a completely different genre to us have tapped into ‘The Hurting.’

Kanye is so much fun. He’s a wonderful person. What I love about Kim and Kanye is that I think they save their happy moments and their smiles for themselves rather than sharing everything with the public. And listen, when a camera is shoved in your face trying to take a selfie, you do not want to smile.

Where he tells you exactly how he views the world – just very straight Kanye, honesty that definitely gets your creativity and strong opinions out on the floor. I think it helped me find myself.

There’s so many things that Kanye does that I agree with and disagree with at times. I just say, ‘You’re in a different place, and what you’re doing is experimental. Nobody’s been there in hip-hop.’