Kanye West released his nearly two-hour long interview with Charlamagne tha God today, and it covers a lot of ground. The two discuss obvious topics like West's meeting with Donald Trump and mental breakthroughs, as well a new announcement about his 300 acres of land he intends to use to start his first "community." West also gives details about his Yeezy collection with Adidas, and explains how his deal with LVMH fell through.
"I met with Bernard Arnault [chairman and CEO of LVMH]. We had a deal on the table that we shook on, I did some performances at their museum, and then three months later the deal got dropped at the board. And that set me back in apparel a bit when that happened because in order for me to even negotiate the deal — this is after I did Season One with Adidas — I had to go to Adidas and say, 'Okay I know we had the best fashion show and all this, but Louis Vuitton is going to back Yeezy and the Kanye West company, and these guys are masters of clothes, so I need you to dim the apparel. I've got paperwork on it. And Adidas said, like, 'Alright, okay cool. We're cool, we'll just do the shoes.' So if you notice, ever since then, there's never been Adidas Yeezy clothing."
According to West, once the deal was pulled, Yeezy Season 2 didn't have a production partner and the collection ultimately never went to market. The interview also covers West's thoughts on Virgil Abloh's recent appointment to the role of artistic director for historic fashion house Louis Vuitton. "Some people have to do things just to prove they can be done," says West.
The fashion talk continues with discussions about his dealings Nike. "I can call the CEO of Adidas at any time... Mark Parker [Nike CEO] wouldn’t get on the phone with me,” says West, also mentioning how everyone who worked with him at Nike are now the "hottest people" at the company. West also notes his dealings with Puma, and the company's lack of foresight when they passed on him: “When that infrastructure and these ideas and that structure I had, it wasn’t no way it wasn’t gonna be a unicorn.”
Kanye also goes into his parting ways with Nike, describing it as "some everyman shit."
"My girlfriend has a child, we have a baby. I loved Nike; I had to put the ED on it for the stockholders. It was heartbreaking for me to have to leave Nike, but they refused to allow me to get royalty on my shoe. And I knew I had the hottest shoe in the world. They wouldn’t let me build anythig. Now we building factories.”
Watch the complete interview above and catch Kanye talking about Virgil, Yeezy, and his dealings with Nike and Puma at 38:00, 1:16, and 50:00, respectively.
Thumbnail via Kanye West YouTube.
