KANYE WEST AND PHARRELL WILLIAMS INTERVIEW IS SOMETHING YOU CAN’T MISS
THEY TALKED ABOUT CORONAVIRUS, MICHAEL JACKSON AND MORE
Kanye West and Pharrell Williams are two icons most people know about. So, when they chatted with each other via a telephonic interview in which the former interviewed the latter for the latest i-D cover for the Summer 2020 issue- The Faith is chaos, things got pretty interesting. Here are the key highlights of that memorable interview.
As Pharrell’s individual style is well-loved, West thanked him for breaking out of the mould during the Kanye West and Pharrell Williams’ interview. He said, “I think one of the things that you, Pharrell, inspired in me was this fearlessness to break the mould. You’re the inspiration. Before I wore a pink polo, you were wearing a pink polo. That lineage is mapped out and proven, and you can go from then all the way up to the moment we have in culture now. You broke down the doors in fashion for us.”
The current coronavirus and lockdown situation mean that the Kanye West and Pharrell Williams interview was conducted on the phone. Pharrell reflected on the current circumstances and living during a pandemic by saying this. “This is a plague we’re living through at the moment. I don’t think there will be such a thing as a new normal – it doesn’t do enough justice to the difference in who we were pre-pandemic and who we will be moving forward.”
Speculating about upcoming changes, he said, “Life’s going to have a different kind of gravity than it’s ever had before. It’s also gonna make us really separated…But we have been through many plagues before. We have been through pandemics. We survived. We’re gonna make it. In a lot of ways, we got ourselves into this, we gotta get to work to get through it.”
Kanye also shared his views during the Kanye West and Pharrell Williams interview and said, “We need to understand humanity as one species. We need to change our mentality, readjust our mindset, and use that readjusted mindset to change the world.”
In the Kanye West and Pharrell Williams interview, the former also talked about the media’s tendency to tear down black cultural figures. He used Michael Jackson’s example and said, “In a way [Pharrell]’s very similar to Michael Jackson, in the ways where Michael Jackson was doing covert, super gangsta stuff, like he’d just pop the needles off. He kissed Elvis Presley’s daughter on MTV. Black culture used to be…we used to be fronting all night, but Michael was doing stuff that was different to what we were programmed to understand as being what we should do. He bought The Beatles’ back catalogue.”
He further added, “We should have something that says we can’t allow any company to tear down our heroes. Not on the Shade Room, not on social media, and especially not in documentaries. I’m like every time the media isn’t happy with me, it’s like, ‘Here they go. They’re gonna come and Wacko Jacko me.’ Which, in some ways, they’ve tried to do.”
During the Kanye West and Pharrell Williams interview, West also shared details about the homeless shelter units that he is building in Wyoming. He said that he aimed to develop a community of “actual home[s]”; a “tasteful” space. His aim is also to create a place where he can imagine living himself. Explaining the t-shirt connection, he said, “I called it the T-shirt of homes because a billionaire can have a T-shirt and a homeless person can have a T-shirt.”
Before this Kanye West and Pharrell Williams interview, West was in the news for covering the tuition fee of George Floyd’s daughter and donating to other charities associated with the cause. He even joined protestors in Chicago.
Before the Kanye West and Pharrell Williams interview, West gave another impressive interview in April where he spoke about sustainability, architecture, and his fervent support of current President of the US, Donald Trump.
