A Kanye West Complex

Mr.West is on the cover of Complex magazine’s latest issue.

Kanye West allowed Complex editor-in-chief Noah Callahan-Bever to spend some time with him in Hawaii, and this is what he said about his time spent


On how Kanye works with others:
Kanye's process is communal. He literally goes around the room asking everyone there what power means to them, throws out lines to see how they"re received, and works out his exact wording with whomever is around to help. But his output is most definitely entirely his own one listen to that consistently unique cadence, word choice, and sense of humor reveals that. Rappers, producers, and entourage are all welcome to offer ideas or phrases, but the funny thing is, nearly every suggestion is met with, That"s really not at all a word I would ever say, but don't stop offering ideas, thanks!

On Kanye's sense of humor in the studio:
What does elicit a visceral reaction hard, heavy laughter is the wall of Kanye Commandments posted on 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper on one side of the studio. They include the obvious. No Tweeting and No Pictures and some well, some less obvious ones, too. Not that ?No Hipster Hats and Just Shut the Fuck Up Sometimes aren't rules to live by.

On Kanye's sleeping habits:
During my five days in Hawaii, Kanye never slept at his house, or even in a bed. He would, er, power-nap in a studio chair or couch here and there in 90-minute intervals, working through the night. Engineers remained behind the boards 24 hours a day

Nicki Minaj, on getting to know the real Kanye:
I didn't think that he was gonna like me. I always figured that he was one of those conscious rappers, so I thought that he wouldn't want girls to be dressed overtly sexy and I go to the studio and he has nothing but pictures of naked women on his computer that he'd invite me to look at. They were really artsy pictures, but you know he loves nudity, so it was a complete shock to me, cause I thought I had him all figured out, but I didn't. He was watching porn when we were in the studio, no shame in his game.

Pusha T, on trying to become a bigger douchebag for Kanye:
I wrote "Runaway" four times and what he does not know to this day is that I was going through a relationship scandal in my life. So this man is asking me to write a song about a relationship and to say that I'm the biggest douchebag ever. He's telling me, "Yo, you need to be more douchebag. We need more douchebag! I didn't want to say to him, ?Dog, I don't know if I even have douchebag in me right now. I've been jammed up, and it's hard for me to even tap into that part,because I'm remorseful. [Laughs.] And he's ******ing beating me for ******ing more. All I hear in my head is, ?More douchebag. More douchebag. More douchebag!"