3 Key Takeaways From Kanye West’s Interview With Joe Rogan

An incredible conversation between two of the most powerful men in the world

Presidential candidate Kanye West finally followed through with an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. In less than five minutes of their nearly three-hour conversation, however, it was clear that fans were in for a wild ride.

West speaks in 10-minute stream of conscious chunks where he might drop little nuggets of philosophy, or on the flipside, barely incoherent ramblings bordering on conspiracy. He himself acknowledged this in the interview.

“So when I talk, I have to describe a thought in five ways. You know, we enjoy food that has multiple seasonings in it. We enjoy music that has multiple instruments,” West told Rogan. “So when I talk, it’s not a rant. It’s a symphony of ideas. And when you collect them, you say, oh, these are all these things that connect.”

West is like a piece of abstract art (“Name one genius who isn’t crazy”). Sometimes his ideas don’t connect and you’re left wanting him to elaborate more. Conversely, sometimes you’re in sync with Ye and your mind is open to the way he looks at salient issues in America.

You have to become a fisherman when listening to West and cast a big net to capture any of the points he’s trying to make. With that being said, here are three of the most important takeaways from this legendary interview.

1. Kanye’s Plan If He Becomes Leader of The Free World

“There couldn’t be a better time to put a visionary in the captain’s chair. “I’m not here to down Trump or down Biden, I’m just here to express why God has called me to take this position... I’m a great leader because I listen and I’m empathetic. I do believe in world peace.” — Kanye West

God is an important person in Kanye’s life. In fact, it’s He who put it in West’s heart to become president.

According to West, the idea to make a 2020 run hit him in the shower a few days before the MTV Music Awards in 2015. Following the award show, the hip-hop artist made an announcement that he would be in the 2020 race. While West describes having “blown minds” with the announcement, many of his close friends didn’t take him seriously.

“I had different friends — some people in the music industry, some tech elites — and they took it as a joke. They were telling me all these millions of reasons why I couldn’t run for president,” said West. “I remember running into Oprah two days or one day after that, and she [said], ‘You don’t want to be president.”

Rogan asked West pertinent questions that helped us to see West’s vision for America (were he to become president). And West was up to the task and proved to be great at painting broad pictures of his ideas.

He told Rogan that we need to surround ourselves with more art and artists because they are the “most truthful and most connected people in the world.” Additionally, when asked about health care, West stressed the importance of preventative measures like building up a healthy body through diet.

However, besides health care, West struggled to answer the particularities of complicated issues. In one of the most memorable parts of the interview, Rogan asks what West would do in the event of foreign hostility, and West completely freezes up. It seemed obvious that he never has given the issue serious thought.

Abortion was another topic that where West will polarize listeners.

“I’m a Christian, so I’m pro-life. So, when I go into office, I’m not changing laws because I realize we live in an imperfect world and an imperfect society. What I will be presenting is a Plan A. We’ve already started working on a Plan A to change the connotation of orphanages, to change the connotation of foster care.”

West continued with a controversial claim that abortion killed more black children than people have died overall from COVID-19.

“There were 210,000 deaths due to COVID in America,” said West. “With abortion culture — there are 1,000 Black children aborted a day. We are in genocide. Since February more Black children have died than people have died of COVID.”

West seems confident, however, that he can put the best minds in positions of leadership to tackle these issues. Moreover, he says that he never makes the wrong decision once he’s given all the information.

“I’m completely confident that I will figure out how to get America out of debt. I have the ability that once I see everything — I never make the wrong decision.”

2. Kanye’s Take On The Black Vote And Institutionalized Racism

“One of the most racist things that liberals who pride themselves on not being racist say to me is, ‘You’re gonna split the Black vote.’ That makes it seem like Black people can’t make decisions ourselves — and that only Black people will vote for me. Think about that statement and the nuance of institutionalized racism … No one has really been able to embrace the idea of Blacks not being in a block, and staying in one place.” — Kanye West

West consistently lands in hot water when he opens his mouth about race relations in America. However, when given three-hours of uninterrupted time to explain himself, this topic proved to be his most sobering thoughts.

He voiced his distaste for corporations like Disney whitewashing black ideas and history. Specifically, he pointed out that his father was a Black Panther, but now when you look up the character you get something that was designed by a White person and put out by a White company. No longer do you see the organization that would protect Black neighborhoods or snatch the mic out of someone’s hand when they were lying, according to West. He took a few more shots at Disney — unrelated to race — when he said they ruined Star Wars and made it cooperate (he ain’t wrong).

West had a few more jabs at institutional racism and White “allies” who allege to not be racist. He told Rogan of a story when he was listening to a Black pastor and noticed that people said “he speaks so well.” West asked Rogan what do people mean by that, insinuating that they often mean that a Black person speaks White when they say “well.”

Then he talked about companies and corporations who only see Black people as products to use and dispense with.

“These companies and the way the music industry, and the way society generally looks at Black people is the way a misogynistic man looks at a hot lady,” said West. “What can you give me? What can you do for me?” A misogynistic man doesn’t look at a hot lady and says: ‘Can you run my company?”

Perhaps his most controversial take regarding racism was about the dangers of Black History Month. West believes that the monthlong celebration ostracizes Black people. And instead of promoting positivity, it makes Black people feel negative about their place in America.

“We shouldn’t have to have a special box, a special month,” said West. “What they show during Black History Month is us getting hosed down, reminding us that we were slaves. What if we had, ‘Remember When I Cheated on You Month?’ How does that make you feel? It makes you feel depleted and defeated.”

3. Slavery is a Choice (Clarified)

“[When you said ‘Slavery is a Choice’] You didn’t mean people being abducted and brought into slavery and put into chains was a choice. What you were talking about is people making decisions that would enslave them financially and enslave their life. Yeah, it was taken out of context and it was taken in the least charitable way.” — Joe Rogan

This interview showed us that Kanye West isn’t the best at articulating himself. Often in his rants, there will be at least two or three moments where you can take his sentence and run a juicy, clickbait headline out of it.

More often than not it’s West’s fault. He isn’t careful with his words. One example in this interview is when he suggests that Bob Marley, Michael Jackson, Prince, and Bruce and Brandon Lee had been murdered. He just dangles that one for you and provides no real evidence of what led him to that conclusion.

The silver lining is that you can take West at his word. Because he has no filter, he is going to speak his mind — for better or worse. This leads to one of his recent and most infamous blunders in an interview with TMZ: “Slavery is a choice.” Although it’s still unclear what West meant at the time he said it, in this interview with Rogan, West dissected the bold sentiment. According to him, he was alluding to a type of slavery in society (and in the music industry) where people are programmed to stay within their class and social status.

“Imagine if Elon Musk was working at GM on a third floor somewhere — we wouldn’t have electric cars. Imagine we didn’t have all these people who break away and then create the new society and the next frontier of where we’re going,” said West. “Even this conversation alone can ignite the people that are going to change the world.”

If that’s what West meant all along, saying “slavery is a choice,” was not the best way of going about it.

Then West began to tie these ideas back into his own life. He told Rogan that it’s hard for people to find the courage necessary to take risks. And when they do find that courage they’re labeled “crazy” and people try to find their flaws, according to West.

“There are people like Nikoli Tesla and there are people who killed animals with Tesla’s inventions to smear Tesla,” West said referring to Thomas Edison’s smear campaign against Tesla.

West is endearing when it comes to painting big picture ideas. His most salient advice to listeners came during the final hour of the podcast. West told Rogan that we need more people who are willing to confront their fears and become superheroes.

“You could walk down a straight line without worrying about anything, but you take that straight line and put it 20 stories high and you’ll be so concerned about the idea of falling that it will make you fall,” said West. “That’s where the superpower is in removing the fear.”

Final Thoughts

You don’t know Kanye West until you watch this interview. That isn’t to say you will love him by the end. Half of listeners will likely feel they were exposed to three hours of verbal diarrhea, while others will find gold nuggets of inspiration in Kanye’s words.

One thing is for certain — your perception of West will change by the end. He isn’t the most well versed on pressing issues, but in three hours you’ll see he’s funny, kind-hearted, and a lot more self-aware of his public perception than you think.

“Some people are doubting me because they want to put this label on: ‘He’s crazy or it’s he’s just a black guy or he’s just a rapper,” said West… “But I found there’s something that everyone agrees on across the globe. All the moms and dads want the world to better for our children; and I can show ways that we’re not at odds. The world is a giant piano, but we’re playing off-key. So we need a producer to synthesize those ideas.”