Kanye West On The Internet, Ugliness And Everything Else
KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP / Getty Images
Kanye West was in France for the Cannes Lions Creativity conference, where he took part in a panel discussion. However, he ended the talk admitting that he and Kim Kardashian actually spent four days making the Instagram.com photo.
You remember when he said he is the new Steve Jobs? Here’s some more Kanye-like stuff:
When asked about his biggest influence, he said, “Steve Jobs, as everyone knows, was my biggest influence. Just seeing the way he fought to make things easier for people. After he passed, I made it my life’s mission to do what he did inside of that company. I dream to help raise the palette and raise the taste level of a generation and also be involved with the production and distribution and advertising of that thing everyone’s begging for.”
How about anti-branding, “People are less about the brand and more about self-confidence and how the brands can assist them, similar to what Steve was doing with tech. This is my goal in lifestyle, in everyday life—to change the idea of what luxury is. Because time is the only luxury. It’s not all these brands that we just drove by that are somehow selling our esteem back to us through association.”
What he thinks about celebrities, “When people think celebrity, which is the highest form of communication—we’re like walking networks or TV shows or brands in ourselves—you don’t think good taste. And I believe that bad taste is vulgar. It’s like cursing. I think the world can be saved through design. Because what is the most distasteful thing someone can do? Kill someone. So, good taste is the opposite of that.”
And here’s his attitude toward ugliness, “The world as a whole is f–king ugly. The Internet as a whole is f–king ugly, too. But I’m not in the construction business. I said to Kevin [Systrom], why don’t you let us redo Instagram? Now, you know, Instagram is nice. It’s nice looking. I’m not knocking it. But just in general, everyone spends all of their time looking at their screens or their phones. And just as a simple task, we could clean that up. Right here, in Cannes, right now, we have enough people with the sensibilities and connections to completely make that a more beautiful place.”
So, Kanye, should we be expecting a book of wisdom anytime soon?
