Black Thought Says He “Connects Less” With Kanye West’s Music Now
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Black Thought says he doesn’t connect with Kanye West’s music as much as he once did.
During an interview with Pitchfork, The Roots’ frontman opened up about the music that made him. He included Ye’s 808s & Heartbreaks on the list, crediting it for inspiring him in the late 2000s. The timeless wordsmith spoke about meeting West and how “dedicated” he was to the grind back then.
“When he was still coming up as a producer, I remember how Kanye would just pop up at sessions. He was operating from that place of ‘I’d rather ask for forgiveness than permission.’ He’d be there playing some beats when you arrived, and if you were offended, he’d apologize,” he recalled.
“His belief in himself was always impressive…With 808s, it was the audacity…I spent so much time being too cool for school. That’s my default setting. I’ve often thought of a musical idea, but the whole getting-out-of-my-head-ness of it all had me going through every possible outcome for [so long] that somebody else would have a similar idea and do it. The bravery to destroy and build in the way Kanye did with that project is admirable. That is the stuff of legend.”
As the Philadelphia native continued, he spoke about West’s artistic evolution. He asserted that when Ye used more writers and producers, he became overshadowed by the spectacle. As a result, Black Thought claimed it became difficult to relate to Ye’s musical direction and vision.
“I connect with Kanye’s music less now. Maybe it’s because of the rate at which he’s been putting out art and having to keep up. I think his process has become more assembly-line, which in many ways is the Motown model. It works,” he continued.
“I don’t know if anything’s lost, but what is sometimes compromised is the personality. The main person it’s supposed to be about is sometimes overshadowed by all these other writers, producers, and people who are contributing. Kanye is less Kanye now than he was when I was a bigger Kanye fan.”
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