Kanye West Covers Interview Magazine, Talks Family With Kim Kardashian, Baby North and More With Director Steve McQueen

12 Years a Slave director interviewed the "Bound 2" rapper for the magazine's cover story, set to hit newsstands Tuesday

By Brandi Fowler Jan 20, 2014 10:30 PMTags
E! Placeholder Image

Kanye West is opening up again about his family with Kim Kardashian and baby North West.

In an interview with 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen, the 36-year-old loquacious rapper dished to Interview magazine about why he considers his fiancé and daughter to be his "astronaut" family.

"You know, becoming famous is like being catapulted into space—sometimes without a space suit," Kanye said. "We've seen so many people combust, suffocate, get lost in all these different things."

"But to have an anchor of other astronauts and to make a little space family ... I mean, it's not like I'm the guy in The Hunger Games [2012] begging for people to like me. I'm almost the guy with the least amount of "likes." I wanted a family. So God gives you opportunities, and you make sacrifices for something that's greater."

The hip-hop mogul and his ladylove welcomed their daughter last June and are currently making plans to wed overseas this summer.

As for his experiences with fatherhood, Kanye said, "I think I have to experience it for another few years to be able to give you an opinion. It's all brand new, how it feels to be a father."

"There are some things that I understand, certain things that I don't understand, certain things that I like to get off my chest in interviews, certain things that I want to talk about," he went on. "But when we talk about love, I don't have an answer. All I can say is that I'm happy I have it."

"If someone has got all the money in the world, they'd still want love," he said earlier in the interview.

Kanye did say he hoped to pass along some of the things his grandfather and mother (who have both passed away) taught him to North.

"The teachings and the confidence that was instilled by my grandfather into my mother, and from my mother into me—which will now, of course, be instilled by me into North—will create the best winter coat against doubters and dream-killers ever made," he said.

Among many other subjects in the article, Kanye touched again on his Grammys snub (he's nominated for Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song, but felt he deserved more nods).

"I've been nominated for Best Album maybe three times," he went on. "I made Dark Fantasy and Watch the Throne less than a year apart and neither of them got nominated. "Ni**as in Paris" [off Watch the Throne] wasn't nominated for Best Song either. But let's go into the fact that I have the most Grammys of any 36-year-old or 40-year-old or whatever, and I've never won a Grammy outside of the Rap or R&B categories. "Jesus Walks" lost Best Song to some other song; "Ni**as in Paris" wasn't nominated in that category. But those are the labels that people want to put on you," he said.

Aside from his beef with the Grammys, the "Bound 2" rapper said he's going to press on with his music career, and continue to "follow exactly what I want to do—which he said was the best advice anyone ever gave him.

"Too many people are scared," he continued. "But it is my job to go up every night and talk about this kind of sh-t. It is actually my job. I'm like a broadcaster for futurism, for dreamers, for people who believe in themselves."

"We've been taught since day one to stop believing in our own dreams. We've had the confidence beaten out of us since day one, and then sold back to us through branding and diamond rings and songs and melodies—through these lines that we have to walk inside of so as to not break the uniform or look silly or be laughed at. So I hope that there are people out there laughing. Laugh loud, please. Laugh until your lungs give out because I will have the last laugh."