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Here’s what happened during Kanye West’s visit to The FADER

Kanye shared that he would have preferred to have Louis C.K. host SNL this weekend.

September 27, 2018

Kanye West showed up to The FADER offices for a meeting on Thursday. His visit turned into an impromptu listening of some songs off his forthcoming album YANDHI, which in turn changed into a complex dialogue about his role in the world, his business plans, and his love of Chicago. What follows is a small report of that lengthy conversation.

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He played a handful of unfinished songs off the project. Ty Dolla $ign was featured on multiple songs. The album also featured 6ix9ine, who pled guilty to three felony accounts of sexual misconduct with a child, and deceased rapper XXXtentacion, who was accused of kidnapping and abusing his pregnant girlfriend. He said he was sending one of the hooks of the song to Rihanna for her to record her vocals. He said the album would be out on Saturday. At certain points of the listening, he asked if he should change some of his lyrics and invited several people to his studio for followup discussions and input.

Notably, he was wearing a Make America Great Again hat, which he said he has "redesigned." He said, "I changed the brim, I mean I changed the shape right here and I put positive energy into the hat." He also said he designed the Kaepernick sweatshirt himself this morning.

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Here is a list of some of the other things he said:

— About being the musical guest on SNL this weekend, Kanye shared that he would have preferred to have Louis C.K. host. (The disgraced comedian has admitted to being a sexual abuser.)
For weeks, Kanye has been sharing updates about highlighting "positive" words in his pocket dictionary. He talked about several of these words and the way they informed his new music.
— He said that he would have "run, fought, or got killed" if he were a slave. (One of the new songs he previewed states multiple times "I'm giving up my slave name.")
— He incorrectly stated that there were only 800 slaves in the 1800s. (That number is closer to 3.9 million).
— He also said that there are 2 million slaves in the U.S. now, referring to the number of people trapped in the private prison system.
— As part of a longer explanation about the word "artificial," read out of his pocket dictionary, he said "a woman’s pussy count goes back to zero" after having any plastic surgery procedures done. This was related to the track he played with 6ix9ine.
— On his move back to Chicago, he said he's meeting with Mayor Rahm Emanuel soon to discuss various projects, which may or not include a building a school/studio in the heart of the city.
— He also said he wants to build a flying-car factory in Chicago with the help of Tesla alums.

Posted: September 27, 2018