Kanye West to Spin Magazine: “I Don’t Want Black Peoples’ Credit”

Kanye West and Daft Punk are featured on the cover of the latest issue of Spin Magazine. You may not know Daft Punk by name, but if you’ve ever taken a listen to Kanye’s hit single “Stronger,” you’ve heard them before. The entire song is based around a sample of their song, “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.” Doesn’t that sound familiar?

SPIN: You think Graduation is blacker than The College Dropout?
KANYE: Way blacker. “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” — how hood is that record?

“Good Life” is straight Steve Harvey, all day long. “Flashing Lights”? I never had a record that was that black. But it’s white at the same time. Certain things are so good it doesn’t have to be white or black. That’s what Graduation is. Take “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.” It’s a white sample, but everything I do to it is to make it as black as possible. So I’ma make the bass as black as possible; I’ma make the lyrics as intense as possible.

SPIN: Are these choices strictly artistic, or are you thinking as a marketer, too? Can you separate those roles?
KANYE: I can’t. I’m a pop enigma. I live and breathe every element in life. I rock a bespoke suit and I go to Harold’s for fried chicken. It’s all these things at once, because, as a tastemaker, I find the best of everything. There’s certain things that black people are the best at and certain things that white people are the best at. Whatever we as black people are the best at, I’ma go get that. Like, on Christmas I don’t want any food that tastes white. And when I go to purchase a house, I don’t want my credit to look black. [Laughs]