Read full transcript of 2016 Kanye West, Taylor Swift phone call - Chicago Tribune

West: It's just like the San Fran clique, you know, that type of thing, like he stays down the street from Mark Zuckerberg and s-- like that. So I was talking to him and I was like, "Bro"… Like me, I'm in personal debt. I'm in debt by a good like 20, 30 million, ever since the fashion, and still have not made it out of it. So that's part of the reason why I had to go to Roc Nation and the touring deals evolved, and it allowed the whole town to try to feel like they could control Kanye or even talk to me like I'm regular or have agents do it, but they saw they couldn't. It's like even in debt, he moves around like he's like a billionaire. I'm like, yeah, I'm a cultural trillionaire! I might have financial debts. So I told Ben Horowitz, I was like, "You guys, you, Mark Zuckerberg or whoever, Tim Cook, you guys have to clean that up." So I'm sending Ben Horowitz my current balance. That means that l'm not up 50, not up 100 million, not up 200 million, not up 300 million. No --negative 20 million, currently. I, Kanye West, the guy who created the genre of music that is the Weeknd, that is Drake -- the guy who created… Every single person that makes music right now, favorite album is "The College Dropout." Every single person that makes music. But I'm rich enough… Like, I went into debt to my wife by 6 million working on a f--ing house, less than like a few months ago, and I was able to pay her back before Christmas and s-- like that. So, you know, when I talk about Nike, the idea that they wouldn't give me a percentage, that I could make something that was so tangible, when Drake was just rapping me into the motherf--ing trashcan, that I could have something that was tangible that showed my creativity and expressed myself, that also could be a business that I could have a five-times multiple on and actually be able to sell it for like a hundred million, 200 million or a billion dollars, that was very serious. Every conversation, every time I'd scream at Charlemagne (Tha God) or scream at (radio host) Sway, that was really, really, really serious. And it also was with my family. I felt like, look, if I'm just the angry black guy with some cool red shoes from Nike five years ago, I was going to be visiting my daughter, as opposed to be living with her. It would've been like, enough is enough. It wouldn't have been cool anymore, because it would have been a group of people, including my wife, that all had at least like 500, 400 million in their account. And then you get the angry black man at the party talking about "I'm the one that put Kim in the dress! I'm the one that did this!" But it never realized itself. So that's one of the things I just talked to Ben… And I talk about it on the album. Talk about personal debt and s--. Just the idea like, "Oh s--, this dude with this f--ing Maybach that makes f--ing $50 million a tour still hasn't lined it up or came out of the point when AEG and Live Nation wouldn't give him a deal." The debt started after "Watch the Throne" [West's joint album with Jay-Z], because I got no deal. But I still was doing my creative projects on my own, shooting a film, doing a fashion show, just trying to be very Disney, be very visceral, be creative. And…

2020-03-22 15:45:00Z
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