14 DAY TRIAL // Kanye West doesn’t make music for people who take offense with curse words and all forms of strong language, and nowhere is that more obvious than on his latest album, the critically acclaimed but occasionally ridiculed “Yeezus.” His next one might be tamer, he hints.
Fresh off wrapping up his Yeezus Tour, Kanye sat down for an interview with Seth Meyers for his Late Night show. You will find the entire chat embedded in this article, including the performance of a medley of some of his biggest hits.
The video directly above is the one where Kanye says being a daddy has made him more aware of the kind of music and language he puts out there.
“My approach to life has changed,” Kanye smiles, when asked how fatherhood has changed him. He won’t commit to saying his next record will be child-friendly, but he does say that it will be for “artistic intellectual kids.”
In Europe, he explains, children are exposed to nudity on television, so it’s all a “matter of perspective” what’s appropriate for them and what not.
Of course, hoping that he might tone down the profanities with his next studio album might be overreaching because, if there is any toning down, it won’t be so soon: Kanye’s daughter with reality star Kim Kardashian, North, is barely 8 months old so it’s not like she’s going to pop daddy’s CD in the following year and be exposed to profanities.
However, this does bring into attention the years-old debate of the kind of message certain music releases, particularly rap ones, send to young girls, especially with the use of the B-word. Being the father of a baby girl has probably put things into perspective for Kanye, having realized that some other dude could one day call North a B-word.
The same thing happened with Jay Z, after Beyonce gave birth to their daughter Blue Ivy Carter. In an interview following the happy moment, the rapper said that he would have to be more cautious with the language he’d be using on future records.
Then again, he went on to release “Magna Carta Holy Grail” one year later and Jay was still Jay in terms of language, so perhaps this kind of lyrical change really doesn’t happen overnight.
Also on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Kanye talked about his sonic albums, explained why he wore a mask on stage and why he did TV interviews to promote “Yeezus”: besides the obvious answer “because he was promoting an album,” he did them because he wanted to offer fans a “quality product,” a “break from the Matrix.”
