As part of an editorial he penned for Paper magazine’s April issue, Kanye West spoke on offering advice to the new generation of artists, his time at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, Illinois, and more.
In regards to his time spent at the American Academy of Art, Kanye says he took a different perspective with his art and “chose to paint sonically.” He also touched on his love for music and revealed that during his days at the American Academy of Art, he loved music “more than I love it now.”
“I went to the American Academy of Art on an arts scholarship, but I stepped back from that to paint in a different way,” Kanye wrote. “I chose to paint sonically. To chop samples in a Warhol-type way. I just looked at civilization: I’d have an assignment to do an ink drawing that took me two weeks, three weeks, and I’d show it to my friends and they’d say, ‘Cool. My friend can draw. Now let’s go play ball. Let’s go downtown and talk to some girls.’ But when I’d work on a track, I’d work on it for just that afternoon — chop up a sample, put some drums to it. And if my friends liked it, we’d make a tape of it and play it all the way downtown. We’d listen to it all night, keep rewinding it. I made a decision at that point to focus on painting with sound instead of painting visually. I loved music. I loved it more than I love it now.”
Kanye also wrote about his willingness to offer advice to younger artists including Drake, A$AP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, and Taylor Swift in the hopes of making “better music in the future.”
AD LOADING...
“I think it’s so important for me, as an artist, to give Drake as much information as I can, A$AP, Kendrick, Taylor Swift, any of these younger artists as much information as I can to make better music in the future,” he wrote “We should all be trying to make something that’s better. It’s funny that I worked at the Gap in high school, because in my past 15 years it seems like that’s the place I stood in my creative path — to be the gap, the bridge. It’s beautiful when you can connect a purpose to things that you’ve spent a lot of time on. I feel very positive about the future. People are starting to recognize and just give me a chance to be looked at, respected and a part of the conversation.”
For additional Kanye West coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
AD LOADING...
