A masked Kanye West performed at London's Wireless festival last night, and in classic Ye style, took a break during a meandering rendition of "Runaway" to talk to his audience for 15 minutes about discrimination and the cult of celebrity. You can watch the full speech at the bottom of the page, or read the eight most pertinent (and hilarious) quotes from the sermon, in which Yeezus inspires his audience to "create more," reveals he told Kim he would marry her seven years ago, and calls out Nike (who he calls "terrorists") for their lack of negotiation. Excuse us while we go get "I just wanna be awesome and change the fucking world" printed on T-shirts.
On the media...
“It’s like they wanna steal you from you, and sell you back to you after they stole it. They wanna make you feel like less than you really are.”
On discrimination in the fashion industry...
“When I take these meetings and shit, people talk to you like you’re stupid or something...I’m not gonna call no names, I’m not gonna mention Nike or nothin’.”
“You know damn well ain’t no black guys or no celebrities making Louis Vuitton nothin’.”
“When I was in my negotiation [with Nike] they told me ‘we don’t negotiate with celebrities.’ That’s like a terrorist. They talk to you like a fucking terrorist.”
On being Kanye West...
“That’s why I’ve got this mask on. Because I ain’t worried about saving face. Fuck my face! I said that wrong [laughs]. Well, they finally got a headline. Fuck whatever my face is supposed to mean and fuck whatever ‘Kanye’ is supposed to mean. It’s about my dreams.”
On living your dreams...
“I argued with my friend Spike Jonze in the car because he said ‘Kanye, what you need to say is try, say you’re gonna try to break it down, don’t say you’re just gonna do it.' And I said, I am gonna do it. I told Kim seven years ago, 'I’m gonna marry you.' I didn’t say I was gonna try.”
“If you’re a creative, and you wanna create, and you just wanna create more, this is exactly what I’ve been fighting for.”
“You know, I just wanna make something awesome, I just wanna be awesome, and I wanna hang around my awesome friends, and change the fucking world. And that’s exactly what I plan to do.”
