Kanye Westonly fills his life with highlights. The antithesis of a humble-bragger, "Ye boasts about thefruits of his labor on many occasions, whether it"s flaunting his world famous family, an impressive Grammy collection orthe views from his passport.
To celebrate the Chicago rapper/designer"s 39th birthday (June 8),Billboard pulled together a lyrical listthat depicts the good life of a man who has everything.
"I done lost and made money/Now I"m makin" somethin" they can"t take from me/Now I"m fresh out of debt in this mothaf---a" --"Untitled"single fromCruel Winter
Kanye West Premieres First Untitled "Cruel Winter" Single
"Let the suicide doors up/I threw suicides on the tour bus/I threw suicides on the private jet/You know what that mean, I"m fly to death" --G.O.O.D. Music "Mercy"
"The good life, let"s go on a living" spree/s**t they say the best things in life are free" --"Good Life" feat. T-Pain
"Four Seasons, take a shower, new clothes, I"m reloaded/Rich n---a, still eatin" catfish" -- Schoolboy Q "THat Part" feat. Kanye West
"I"m more of the, trips to Florida/Order the h"orderves, views of the water/Straight from the page of your favorite author/And the weather so breezy/Man why can"t life always be this easy" --"Flashing Lights"
"Doctors say Im the illest/ "Cause Im suffering from realness/Got my n---as in Paris/And they going gorillas" --"N----s In Paris" with Jay Z
Kanye West Talks Rapping as a Married Man, Meeting Desiigner, Working with Adidas For His Daughter & More with Big Boy
"I stuck to my roots, I"m like Jimmy Fallon/I ain"t dropped the album but the shoes went platinum"--"Facts"
"Break records at Louis,ate breakfast at Gucci/My girl a superstar all from a home movie"--"Clique" feat. Big Sean & Jay Z
"21 Grammys, superstar family/We the new Jacksons, I"m all about that action" --"Highlights"
"It"s my birthday, I deserve to be greedy" --2Chainz"Birthday Song" feat. Kanye West
5 Second Rule with Kanye West Did Big Sean just get ice cold against Ariana Grande during his verse on Kanye Wests new Cruel Winter track? Sean rapped how hes subtracted the negative energy of his life, possibly dissing his ex! Click to listen.
Is all fair in love and hip-hop? Big Sean, 28, was one of the many rappers making an appearance on Kanye Wests, 38, new single from the long awaited G.O.O.D. Music compilation. When the mic got passed to Sean, did he take his turn to trash his ex-girlfriend, Ariana Grande, 22?
Lately its all about Zen and me, Big Sean rapped on the untitled jam from Yeezys upcomingCruel Wintercompilation, according to Genius. Subtractin the negative energy / With the family, turn youre a** into a memory / Im with the team of the century. Big Seans verse was pretty impressive, especially since the song boasts appearances from Gucci Mane, 36,Travis Scott, 24, 2 Chainz, 38, and Yeezy himself.
Big Seans lyricsmight have been his way of returning the shade thrown at him by his ex. Ariana, who hooked up with Ricky Alvarez, 24, after she and Sean split, said that she now has a healthy life. She didnt drop Seans name during her interview like how Sean didnt say whose a** would get turned into a memory so this might be a coincidence?
Maybe? Sean threw a little shade of his own at Ariana when he regrammed a picture of Justin Bieber, 22, and him shaking hands. Justin and Ariana had their own IG drama, with him complimenting her looks and her responding by saying Not today Satan!!!However, Biebs did complement her new song so maybe their feud is over?
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Sean has shown that like Ariana, he a healthy life too, thanks to Jhene Aiko. The 28-year-old singer posed while sitting in Big Seans lap while backstage of The Late Late Show on May 27, before performing their single, On The Way. Jhene may be married to Dot Da Genius, 29, but she sure looked comfy usingSeans as a chair.
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Will Cruel Winter kick off the Summer of Shade? Ariana might have to reconsider her decision to not write a breakup song about Big Sean. I had kind of moved on, she said after the breakup. Everything is nice and great right nowwhy would I write about some bullsh*t? Well, Sean may have given her a reason.
What do you think, HollywoodLifers? Was Big Sean dissing Ariana with his verse on Kanye Wests Cruel Winter track?
WATCH KANYE WEST GO CRAZY ON ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW!!!
Kanye West is being sued over the Yeezus single "New Slaves." Hungarian composer Gabor Presser is claiming that he is owed money for a sample that was used at the end of the track, TMZ reports. Presser says that Kanye reached out for permission to use the sampleand that he agreed, but only on the condition that a formal deal would be arranged. According to documents obtained by TMZ, Kanye sent Presser a $10,000 advance, but the check was never cashed. Now, Presser is asking for at least $2.5 million.
This isn"t the first time Kanye has been sued over a Yeezus sample. Back in 2013,Ponderosa Twins Plus One singer Ricky Spicer said he wasn"t properly compensated for the sample used in "Bound 2." Earlier this year, Kanye and TIDAL were both sued by disgruntled fans who claimed they were deceived into signing up for the service. Kanye West"s album, The Life of Pablo,was initially pegged as a TIDAL exclusive, drawing subscribers, but was soon after released to outlets like Apple Music and Spotify.
Read "Kanye West Is Still ChangingThe Life of Pablo. Does It Matter?" on the Pitch.
WATCH KANYE WEST GO CRAZY ON ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW!!! Kanye West and Kim Kardashian attend the Met Gala on May 2, 2016 Credit: Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images
Big fish, big pond! Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are adding a body of water to the 3.5 acres that make up their Hidden Hills, California, home, a source says in the new issue of Us Weekly.
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Its for swimming and things of that nature, says the pal. They removed the old pool that was there, and this will be double the size of the old pool and an unusual shape.
After the birth of their 5-month-old son, Saint, West, 38, and Kardashian, 35, moved with the baby and daughter North, 2, from Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenners home in Calabasas, California, to the Bel Air mansion they purchased back in 2013. Theyd planned to sell that house after purchasing their Hidden Hills estate for $20 million in 2014, but perpetual renovations have delayed the process, with the family now expecting to move in sometime this summer.
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In addition to the backyard lagoon, the couple have made other splashy upgrades, including expanding the master suite and rehabbing the vineyard.
They consulted experts to get it operable again, a source told Us in December of the couples plans for their vineyard. Kanye loves wine, and hes really excited about this.
PHOTOS: North West"s Fabulous Life: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West"s Daughter
They cant stop renovating! says another insider. Kanye wont move in until it is perfect. He says he wants to make it into their Neverland!
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"Well, it"s not daytime television anymore," Ellen DeGeneres said Thursday on her show after a rambling, nearly unbroken, nearly 6-minute oration by her guest, Kanye West.
"We"re gonna take a break," she added, looking for the right words after she"d managed to sneak in only a few dozen of them during West"s lengthy monologue.
After working to pry more than a few words out of the rapper as she quizzed him about his kids and whether he regretted anything he"d ever tweeted, the host brought up his appeal to Mark Zuckerberg for $1 billion in funding, which West acknowledged might have been more successful had he approached the Facebook founder on, well, Facebook, instead of Twitter.
"Give me one example, the ideas," DeGeneres said, "because maybe someone watching will give you the money."
And Kanye was off to the races.
We"re in a Renaissance period where people have multiple talents, he said, name-checking "12 Years a Slave" director Steve McQueen. He brought up his parents and their credentials, saying he was raised to make a difference. He quoted Rakim and said he was raised on Phife Dawg and hip-hop.
"Are you connecting?," the shoe designer asked after dismissing those who measure contributions to society by tracking sales and radio play. "Picasso is dead. Steve Jobs is dead. Walt Disney is dead. Name somebody living that you can name in the same breath as them.
"Don"t tell me about being likeable. We"ve got a hundred years here. We"re one race, the human race, one civilization. We"re a blip in the existence of the universe, and we"re constantly trying to pull each other down. Not doing things to help each other. That"s my point. It"s like I"m shaking talking about it. I know it"s daytime TV, but I feel that I can make a difference while I"m here. I feel that I can make things better through my skill set. I"m an artist, and I feel that I can make things better through my skill set. I"m a artist. Five years old, art school. PhD, Art Institute of Chicago."
He has a condition where he sees sound, he said. "Everything that I sonically make is a painting. I see it. I see the importance I see the importance and the value of everyone being able to experience a more beautiful life."
West dropped more names, mentioning a dinner with President Obama and Leonardo DiCaprio, the latter of whose conservation efforts were apparently taken more seriously than West"s work in the world of fashion design.
"But," Mr. Kim Kardashian said, "I remember going to school, like, in fifth grade, and wanting to have a cool outfit ....
"I called the head of Payless [ShoeSource]. I"m like, "I want to work with you. I want to take all this information that I"ve learned from sitting at all these fashion shows and knocking on all these doors and buying all these expensive clothes and I want to take away bullying." "
It"s like I"m shaking, talking about it. I know it"s daytime TV, but I feel that I can make a difference while I"m here.
Kanye West
At this point, someone in the control booth apparently remembered to hit the "applause" button, because the audience had basically been taking it all in silently for a while.
"There was a time Michael Jackson couldn"t get his video on MTV because he was considered to be "urban." The Michael Jackson," West said. "So I literally have to be the Michael Jackson of apparel in order to break down the doors for everyone who will come after I"m gone, after I"m dead. After they call me Wacko Kanye. Isn"t that so funny, that people point fingers at the people who have influenced us the most?"
At this point, DeGeneres was as she had been for an eternity in talk-show time sitting motionless except for blinking and occasionally wetting her lips as if to speak. But there had been no room to speak.
"I"m sorry, daytime television," West said to the audience. "I"m sorry for the realness."
Cue applause. Time to go to commercial.
Follow Christie D"Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ.
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For at least the third time, Sir Paul McCartney has teamed up with a young African American man for a hit. McCartney and Kanye West just released Only One, a tribute to Wests deceased mother, on iTunes and Wests Web site.
Hello my only one, just like the morning sun, West sings over the former Beatles keyboard vamping. Youll keep on rising til the skyknows your name. The ballad runs 4:42 and ends with abouta minute of McCartney tickling the ivories solo in Lady Madonna mode.
A somewhat mystical statement issued with the song described what happened when the Walrus and Yeezus teamed up.
Kanye sat there with his family, holding his daughter North on his lap, and listened to his vocals, singing, Hello, my only one, a statement reported by Rolling Stone read. And in that moment, not only could he not recall having sung those words, but he realized that perhaps the words had never really come from him.The process of artistic creation is one that does not involve thinking, but often channeling. And he understood in that moment that his late mother, Dr. Donda West, who was also his mentor, confidante, and best friend, had spoken through him that day.
This is arguably the first of McCartneys duets with young black men not infused with racial baggage, overt or encoded. First, there was Ebony and Ivory with Stevie Wonder, released in 1982. Key question: Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony side by side on my piano keyboard oh lord, why dont we?
The following year saw the release of Say, Say, Say, McCartneys duet with Michael Jackson the video for which, some say, referenced minstrel shows.
One academic thought McCartney and Jackson toyed with blackface without taking it on.
The sequences of Say, Say, Say will initially dismay anyone concerned with the fate of peoples culture, wrote Smith professor W.T. Lhamon in Raising Cain: Blackface Performance from Jim Crow to Hip Hop. What a loss that the whole cycle of blackface performance should funnel down to these capers in a cross-racial attraction played out among stars ashamed to utter its name aloud in public?
Lhamon also found fault with the video becauseMcCartney as Mac helps Jackson as Jac into a wagon.
In a just world, Jackson should be pulling McCartney onto the wagon, not the other way round, Lhamon wrote.
Though Only One is not about race, McCartneys alliance with West theauthorof New Slaves who said George Bush doesnt care about black people puts him in the studio with a performer whose provocative take on racial politics seems part of a different universe than those of previous collaborators Wonder and Jackson. McCartney, 72, cant beaccused of using young black performers to stay relevant. Even more than Elvis Presley or bandmate John Lennon, the man is arguably the most influential performer in the history of pop music, and need not polish his legacy.
However, McCartney has had to respond to accusations of racism in the past. In 1969, a version of the Beatles song Get Back known as No Pakistanis surfaced.Dont dig no Pakistanis taking all the peoples jobs, McCartney said on the recording.
In 1986, McCartney said the comment was not meant as a slight.
There were a lot of stories in the newspapers then about Pakistanis crowding out flats you know, living 16 to a room or whatever, McCartneysaid, as Salon reported in an exhaustive piece about No Pakistanis.
He added: If there was any group that was not racist, it was the Beatles. I mean, all our favorite people were always black.
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Justin Moyer is the deputy editor of the Morning Mix.
