This Kanye West, Excuse Me, 'Ye' Interview on Drink Champs Was Exactly What You Expected But So Much More

I knew shit had hit the fan before I ever pressed play on the latest episode of Drink Champs, the popular podcast/YouTube series hosted by rapper Nore and DJ EFN that features celebs and artists for multi-hour sitdowns to talk about everything and nothing and features lots of clapping (unless the guests request otherwise, apparently). When I fired up my Instagram feed this morning, I saw super-producer Just Blaze had posted a statement that said nobody’s name about how disappointed and confused he was about what he had just seen. I knew then, the Kanye episode must have been posted.

Boasting over 1.6 million views since its posting last night, the Kanye…excuse me, Ye, interview is literally everything you expected it to be plus a whole lot of shit I promise you didn’t see coming. There are props in the “giving flowers sense.” But there are also props in the “physical item” sense. There are shots at people that Kanye swears he loves left and right. There are cringey moments as well that are better covered in other outlets. Kanye jokes about getting himself canceled several times even though he also claims he can’t be canceled; he loves cancel culture because he’s above it. According to him he’s in a jet plane looking down at the clouds below, which is cancel culture. Kanye is Kanye.

So here is a non-comprehensive list of things worthy of note that Kanye decided to share, in no particular order. Sometimes Nore and EFN asked, sometimes Kanye just Kanyed. Also, I realize that there is no discussion of the Louis Vuitton Don these days without a discussion about whether or not he’s having an episode. I have no idea what is happening in this video. His mind was all over the place several times, but I’m like that at times, too. I have no idea what Kanye’s state of mind is so I won’t speak to that. If he’s not well, I hope he gets the help he needs; I didn’t feel like this was an interview of a not-well person, if that makes sense.

1. Kanye said that Common is a thousand times better than Talib Kweli as a rapper.

I mean, I’m not sure he’s 1,000 times better but in my heart he’s at least 700 times better. Kanye also said he never liked Talib rapped and that I can understand completely. But then he essentially said Common was a puppet for the Democrats, and called him a John Legend ass nigga, which is code for light-skinned.

2. Kanye really has issues with Talib Kweli.

Kanye basically thinks Talib Kweli is kind of an asshole and kind of self-righteous, I mean, well…no argument from me here. But when he said that 99 percent of people would pick being Kanye if given the choice between being Kanye or Talib I died laughing. It’s probably not true, but I mean, neither option is a good one; at least Kanye is rich and has a very nice shoe collection.

3. Kanye spends A LOT of time thinking about and dissecting Drake in context of his life. But he also said Drake is basically a petty savant at beefing.

When he said that Drake don’t just hit you with a bar but buys the house 5 doors down from you and then DMs every woman you know, my heart began to gently weep. Drake is basically super petty and Kanye loves him anyway. Also, Kanye said that 94 percent of Black women voted for Kamala—he also claimed that nobody’s seen her since the election—like Drake was on the ballot. That was funny. That was a good joke, Ye.

4. Da Baby’s inclusion on “Jail, Pt. 2″ was a troll to Jay-Z?

Ye said that he got the last laugh after Jay famously told him to get off that red cap in the original version of the song “Jail” from Donda. At the Houston show, though, instead of playing the version with Jay, Kanye played the version with DaBaby as a troll to Jay. I can’t imagine Jay being supremely bothered by this in the way that Kanye would be mad about it, but ya know, go awf ,sis.

5. Kanye took Soulja Boy’s verse off of “Remote Control” because it was trash.

This is 100 percent facts. I saw Soulja Boy go off about his verse being taken off and then watched the video that Soulja posted of his verse and in my head I was hoping Soulja didn’t think anybody was going to be like, “I can’t believe Kanye took THIS off of ‘Remote Control’!” Because it was bad even measuring against Soulja Boy standards. Kanye made the right call on that verse. Kid Cudi on the other hand, his verse being removed was a travesty.

6. The Big Sean shit was just mean.

Kanye said signing Big Sean was the worst decision he ever made. And called John Legend a sell out because both of them came out and spoke of Kanye negatively surrounding his support of Trump. I mean this nigga went and got a fake tombstone and said if he died his tombstone should say he died because he signed Big Sean. Look, I think his catalog isn’t good either but come on. Kanye really hates it when people have a problem with his opinion. He also continued to randomly say “get lifted” in a John Legend-esque voice later in the interview out of nowhere; “Get Lifted” was both the name of John Legend’s debut album and the title track on the record.

7. Kanye said he’s Dame Dash with money. I think he’s right. Oh and shoes people actually want to wear. He didn’t say that, though.

When asked who was a better CEO, Jay-Z or Dame Dash, Kanye immediately said Dame Dash. I think history will kind of show us this isn’t entirely far fetched. Jay seems like he was a better business man (obviously) but maybe Dame was better at the actual job of CEO-ing. I don’t know. I write for a living. Either way, I’m not surprised he said that because I actually think that’s true. Dame has a much better filter than Kanye, but both of them being in an unfiltered, true-to-oneself, truth to power manner of speaking. As Kanye so eloquently asked on “Get ‘Em High” (coincidentally featuring Talib Kweli and Common), “why you think me and Dame cool, we assholes.”

8. He was very jealous of Virgil Abloh getting the job with Louis Vuitton.

Kanye felt he deserved that slot. He took that personal. There’s more there but, just know Kanye was jealous.

9. Beanie Sigel gave him the name Yeezy. That was some cool hip-hop trivia.

10. Kanye said a bunch of shit about #MeToo.

I can’t even begin to properly unpack this but he definitely kept tossing in getting #MeToo’d like it was a cold, and used it wrong. It’s not even worth digging into deeply here because Kanye has proven time and time again that there are some concepts he just doesn’t get.

11. He said Just Blaze (and Travis Scott) were copy cats of him.

Whew chile, this was the thing that drew me into the interview and it’s crazy because he didn’t spend much time on this. It’s also oddly inaccurate because he said that he did the first half of Jay Z’s The Blueprint, and then Just Blaze basically came in and copied what he did, except he only produced four records on it; Just Blaze produced 3. Bink on the other hand is the one who doesn’t get the credit he deserves for that album. Hell, Bink produced “All I Need” which I think is the best beat on the album. But to go at Just Blaze and call him a copy cat when both are legends in hip hop and then to say it like, “he’s a copycat, look at where he is in life??” Like, how much of a dickhead can you be? As was referenced up top, Just Blaze took the classy way out but also pointed out how Kanye’s folks were trying to get ahold to Blaze to work on Donda. Thing is, Kanye doesn’t take any of the shots he took at folks as disses, just facts. He thinks telling people they’re trying to be like him is just the truth but that truth is okay.

And that’s the Kanye experience in a nutshell. Talk shit and then expect people to be okay with it. There was more about Kim K and control and processors and a lot of Steve Jobs talk and shit but frankly, you’ve heard all that before. Ye.