Kanye West: “I don’t wish to be number one anymore, I wish to be water.”

In a new interview with interior designer Axel Vervoordt for The Hollywood Reporter, Kanye West offered up his thoughts on an array of fashion, culture, art and societal topics.

Outspoken as ever, West let slip his plans to release a philosophy book titled Break the Simulation. Confiding in Verboordt, whose clients include West alongside Sting and Robert De Niro he said, “I've got this new concept that I've been diggin' into. I'm writing a philosophy book right now called Break the Simulation”.

Adding, “I've got a concept about photographs, and I'm on the fence about photographs—about human beings being obsessed with photographs—because it takes you out of the now and transports you into the past or transports you into the future. It can be used to document, but a lot of times it overtakes [people].”

Moving on later in the interview to discuss the future of his Yeezy line and its ongoing collaboration with sportswear staple Adidas West explained, “We do these sneakers that sell out and we get, ‘Oh, this is the number one brand on Women's Wear Daily.’ And I don't wish to be number one anymore, I wish to be water. I wish to be closer to UNICEF or something where I can take the information that I have and help as many people as possible, not to just shove it into a brand.”

Whilst West avoided conversations surrounding his music and future releases, he did speak on Virgil Abloh’s pivot to artistic director of menswear of Parisian fashion house Louis Vuitton, explaining “Because [Abloh and I] have been fighting to make apparel at a certain price that still has the same credibility and desirability as something at a higher price. … But when they say he was my creative director, that’s incorrect. He was a creative collaborator.”

Read the lengthy interview in full here, and check out our playlist exploring the genius of Kanye West in 50 tracks.

Jasmine Kent-Smith is Mixmag's Weekend Editor. Follow her on Twitter