Shadowing Practice: Kanye West in 2005— Charlie Rose Interview - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Kanye West is here.
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His debut album, The College Dropout, has sold over 2 .5 million copies, earned him 10 Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist, Song of the Year,
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Album of the Year, and more.
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Here is a look at his work.
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February 10th will mark the launch of the Kanye West Foundation, which aims to keep kids in school.
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I am pleased to have him here at this table for
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the first time as we look at the week ahead of the Grammys.
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Welcome.
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What's going on?
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What's going on is right.
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Ten Grammy nominations, including all those things that I said.
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Album of the Year, Album of the Year Producer for the Diary of Alicia Keys, who is here.
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Song of the Year, new for Jesus Walks, new artist, you, best R &B song, rap solo performance, rap song performance, rap song collaboration, rap song,
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Jesus Walks Again, rap album, all of that, you have been nominated for.
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Who is it that you would like to say I told you
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so I told you so I told you so oh And the list is so long.
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I don't know where to start.
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I start with uh my my
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Gym teacher back in high school who I told her freshman year I was about to get a deal
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and take crisscross out
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and then she came to me senior year like what happened to your record deal
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or do I tell like all the
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Label execs that didn't sign me
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and they said who's gonna who's gonna believe a rapper that dresses like Carlton or do I?
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Do I then they would say we'll call you yeah?
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Yeah, I got hit with those words a few times.
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Do I do I do I say it to?
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The magazines where I begged for covers or I said
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that I felt like the album should get a higher rating and people say What's wrong with him?
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You know I?
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Just felt if If you if you put your heart into something
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and you had a grasp on what was really good and you knew you delivered a good product
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you have the right to defend your product after people criticize
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it you have the right to call people say man I feel like it deserves something better
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if you're in school if you're the valedictorian if you're someone
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that always gets all A's and you get a B you're gonna go to a professor
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and try to get your your grade change
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so I feel like the Grammys kind of stamped
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and now everybody feels like it's okay to like me yeah it was it was really different
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when it came out and they They didn't know if it was cool enough to say you like Kanye yet.
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You know?
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Uh, stay with that idea though because I'm interested in how you, why you believe all of this has happened.
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I mean what was it that you did and why was what you have done this year with this album
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receive such a response?
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I just think it was in God's plan.
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I think I survived my accident.
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I think I think he just has me here for a reason
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that I have something to say and
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that my ultimate goal is to help people
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So he kept me here to somehow help other people It's
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not just you know me doing this album Where it could
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be me giving someone else a hit single me giving someone some advice that they can carry on me giving them
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A song that will help them through their day or me, um, you know starting this foundation And I think he just puts up with this, you know the the bravado you know,
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he just deals with it, you know, because I'm still a human being.
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But I'm still one of his soldiers, though.
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But the Lord says, it's okay, that's gone.
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Is that what he says?
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Yeah.
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Or she says, whoever.
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Stay with the, I'll come back to the accident in a moment, because it's important and central to your own life experience, because of how, well, you tell me,
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what happened in October of 2002?
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Well, I was driving from the studio.
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I had a long day where I was working on like three different sessions and I
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Think I had about a ten -minute ride to the hotel and I fell asleep at the wheel and I was
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Woken by steering wheel hitting my mouth at 50 miles per hour and
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I looked in the rear view
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and I saw my face getting bigger like something off the movies like Teen Wolf
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or something And you use special effects for yeah, but I
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Actually I could see the separation in my jaw right here
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So I thought it was just broken in one place
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and I found out later it was broken in three places
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and when the cops finally came they had to put this like the
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The neck brace like right here up against the chin right where it was broken so it was excruciating pain and
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They pulled me out in the stretcher.
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It was like freezing cold in the ambulance
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and once I got to the hospital They kept on asking me the same questions
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and I remember screaming out because I I remember screaming out and saying, yo, why do you keep on asking me questions?
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Don't you see my mouth is broken?
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That was the bad part about it.
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The good part about it was the recovery.
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I used Through the Wire and this entire album as my rehabilitation.
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It was the first opportunity I had to tell people I'm not going to the studio.
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And instead of staying at the hotel, I snuck in and I made songs that inspired me, songs that gave me life.
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I feel like this album was kind of like my angel.
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that helped heal me.
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Because it helped heal you in what way?
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It revived my spirits.
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It was the songs.
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I couldn't eat.
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I couldn't enjoy food.
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There was a lot of things I couldn't do.
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But one thing I could do is go to the studio and turn it up loud.
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And that's the reason why a lot of the music on there, they evoke a certain emotion.
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They raise your spirits.
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Any situation you're going through from spaceships, I've been working this grave shift and I ain't made it.
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I wish I could buy me a spaceship and fly.
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And anybody that's in that situation, they listen to the song and it'll be like this spaceship.
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So being there, I feel like this album was my angel.
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Just imagine if you were in the hospital bed and someone came through and healed you.
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And when you finally recovered, you said, oh, I got this person that heals people.
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And I want you to meet them.
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So you let the whole world meet them.
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And then people have the nerve to criticize this person that's helped you
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so much And that's the way I felt
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when people were criticizing my album when it first came out I'm like no you don't it's not just an album.
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You don't understand what it was it mainly because of the title Jesus walks was that what?
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No, it wasn't just Jesus walks every song I swear to
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you every song see people try to pinpoint Jesus walks with
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the entire album is spiritual It's like no Stella award nomination
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can take away from the impact of what this does for people
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when they hear family business when they hit through the wire
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if they've been an accident when
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when someone whose boyfriend just got locked up for for selling drugs
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because he couldn't find a job and he had three three strikes
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and he had the X on his back
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so there was no work opportunities when he hears
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when she hears drug dealing just to get by stack your money till it gets sky high
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We wasn't supposed to make it past 25.
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Joke's on you, we still alive.
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Throw your hands up in the sky and say, we don't care what people say.
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That right there is like a family member speaking to them.
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The music on this CD was, I was only the vessel for this.
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God was in the studio with me when I was working.
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Even, I don't know in the future, I don't know if I'll be able to make anything like this.
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Because this was my healing process.
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This was my rehabilitation CD So this was this came right directly from where you were in the inside.
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Yes And you worry about whether you can do it again.
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Yeah, I always worry
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But I just have to keep making good music the best music I can I can even get more skill
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But the whole thing is to always have that heart
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Because it's not about it's people it's people
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that might be better programmers better better rappers but where I think I really won is I had the heart.
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I had the heart to survive through that.
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And you could access it.
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Yeah.
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Did you always want to be a rapper?
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I mean, you know, you started as a producer.
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Yeah, every black kid wants to be a rapper.
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Is that right?
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Yeah.
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Every little black kid wants to be a rapper
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or an NBA player or do what their father does or be a doctor or, you know, all these different careers
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when you're growing up you see Run DMC you want to see LL Kuja
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but I really started taking it seriously like in the seventh grade.
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That you could be.
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Yeah I really thought that I was going to come out
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and like just take crisscross out like I pinpointed the rappers that were still like my age you know.
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And in the college dropout you are saying to every
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every kid in any urban or rural neighborhood in America black
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or white that you can make it if if you believe in yourself, is that what you're saying?
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And you don't have to have a college diploma to make it.
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Well, I always tell people college is a choice.
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High school is a necessity, but college is a choice.
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A lot of times people go to school because it's what their parents want them to do.
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They're chasing someone else's dream.
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There's so many people that are majoring in, well, stuff.
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You know, if you go to school, like, okay, if you're picking out Christmas gifts, You might have $500 and you got this list and you know exactly what you want to get
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People go to school and it's been at eight thousand ten thousand dollars a year fifteen thousand
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and they have no idea What they want just stop just
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stop Wait a second before you sign all those loans before
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you put yourself in debt for the rest of your life and say What do I want to do with my life?
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Sometimes you just need a couple years after high school just to get yourself together
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You know and that's another word to even you may not be right for college today
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But if you go off and do something else whether it's the military whatever you might do yeah, and or go to work or whatever you might do
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If you come back after two years or three years
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and go to college College will be more meaningful
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and therefore you get more out of it and therefore you'll benefit from it better if colleges
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what's meant for you because it's a lot of professions
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that don't involve college but everybody can't be an NBA player everybody can't be a rap star
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but you can't be you need you need you need you
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need plumbers you need electricians there's a lot of people
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that make the same thing or more than people with college degrees
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and ultimately it's about being happy having a happy life raising
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your family I feel like the key to life is family itself
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so if you can provide for your family this is speaking from a male point of view and be happy, then that's all you need.
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It's not about that college degree that everybody says that you're supposed to have.
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There's so many people with college degrees that are not happy with their life.
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If you have a dream and you're good enough, because sometimes people, it's a difference between a dream and just being delusional.
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Don't just drop out of school.
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Like, I was already making money in the music industry.
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I had a platinum plaque before I dropped out of school.
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And I had a deal on the table with Columbia, with Sony right
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and I flew in
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and I remember saying I'm gonna be bigger than Jermaine Dupree I'm gonna be bigger than Michael Jackson
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and I didn't realize that the person I was talking to was actually Jermaine Dupree's father or whatever so
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you know so I really been wilding out since day one
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so this is not new people say okay you got all
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big you started wilding out like no you wilded out yeah
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I was like an eighth grade they canceled a talent show
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they said this is not I'm not finna be the Kanye West show. So.
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No, they didn't say that.
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Yeah, so this is like, this and that some after the fame thing.
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Yeah, well, Kanye means what, the appointed one?
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What does it mean?
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It means, Kanye means the only one.
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The only one.
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Yeah.
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It's kind of appropriate.
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Let's talk a bit about your parents.
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Okay.
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Your mother, tell me about your mother.
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My mother was head of the English department when I actually went to that school.
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At Chicago State?
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Chicago State University and my father he actually he had
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so many degrees yeah while he was searching for what he wanted to do
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that sometimes I forget the exact ones
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but it was something where he used to teach he was a professor at the school
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when my mother worked at
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when they met he has like all types of masters they split
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when you were young yeah
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when I was three years old what does he think of
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this he loves it he loves it yeah my father's both my My mother
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and my father really had me in the church a lot.
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But my father really, when I would come home, like we would be driving home from Delaware to Maryland
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and we would be listening to the radio
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and they would play like a song like Do Me Baby or something that was involved in a triangle relationship.
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And I would be like, and he would turn it down.
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I would say, what's wrong with that song?
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It's talking about love.
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And he would explain to me how we stay in PG
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and DC and how this is one of the murder the capitals of the world
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and how most of these murders are surrounded around triangle relationships.
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You slept with my girl.
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I'm going to kill you.
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And he explained how these songs, they have hidden agendas and negative connotations, even though it seems like they're talking about love.
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So for that three -hour ride, instead of getting to hear the radio,
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I would have to hear him break down social issues and the black father not being in the home or triangle relationships.
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And when it was time for me to rap, I didn't rap about that.
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I rapped about a bunch of BS.
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But I started to hang out with dead presidents and Kweli and Common.
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And they showed me how to rap about this stuff and still make it sound cool.
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And when they gave me that, it flew out of me.
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It started flowing.
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I wrote All Falls Down in one night.
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You know?
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Yeah.
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In one night?
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Yeah.
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What did they give you, though?
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They showed you how to do what? to to rap about things became your heart yeah
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that came from my heart
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that weren't particularly the cool thing You know I got a
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throwback on I got a gun You know I like I've
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never had I never shot a gun before in my life You know and
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but I would say it in raps cuz it seemed like it seemed like what I was supposed to do
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And they showed me how to word what it was you had to say
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and still make it you know tangible to a rap listener and And what was that that they showed you, how to make it tangible to a rap listener?
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A different message, but tangible to a rap listener.
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Because rap is like, it has a certain edge to it.
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It has a certain, you got to speak whatever you say with conviction.
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But it will always be, if you say, okay, I got a gun, you will say like, yo, I got a gun.
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You know, and you'll say, can I help you?
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You will say, can I help you?
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And say it in a different way.
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But they show me how to say, can I help you?
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Like, can I help you?
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Yeah.
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And that's all that this album is.
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It's can't I help you?
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Can't I help you?
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So it's like you give that.
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So people don't actually realize that they're getting like positive energy because it sounds like the exact same thing.
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It's a trick.
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Go ahead.
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It's a what?
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It's a trick.
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Like Jesus walks is a trick.
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They told me it would never be played on the radio, so the second verse was reverse psychology for program directors.
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They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus, right?
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He said, oh no, we can play that.
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We can play Jesus.
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What are you talking about?
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I don't know what you're talking about.
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And this goes back to some of the things your father taught you.
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Yeah.
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And where did you find the religion?
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My father, my grandmother falling asleep on my grandmother's chest back when I was like, Eight years old, and it was always,
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I was raised as a Christian, so that's what I believe.
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I believe Jesus died for our sins.
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One issue, though, I have is that I don't believe that people that don't believe that are going to hell, though.
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But you're supposed to believe that when you're a Christian.
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I don't believe that Muslims are going to hell.
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I don't believe that a newborn baby that dies in a fire two days after he was born, that didn't get a chance to get baptized is going to hell.
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You think because he runs some water over his head, like, oh, that makes a difference to God?
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No, it doesn't.
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You're right.
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No, how could I be right?
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That's not what the Bible says.
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No, no, no, no. That's not what the Bible says.
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Because a loving God wouldn't have that attitude.
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That's what I feel, but there's so many people that disagree with me.
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There's so many people that listen to Jesus Walks, and they're going to look at this interview, they're going to say, well, how do you believe Jesus walks?
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But you don't believe everybody that's not a Christian is going to hell.
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And the thing is, I have...
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my relationship with God.
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I feel like I was at the gates in that accident, and he told me to go back and live my life.
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Only thing promised is death.
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So basically, life is like a game.
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So you have to play the game the way you want to play it.
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And how have you chosen to play it?
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You see how I play it.
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I get on TV and say stuff to spark people's attention.
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I make songs that are not supposed to be on the radio.
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I help artists that need help.
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I try to put my friends in better positions.
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I try to change music and use that ability to maybe change the world.
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Now, do you think you're a better person, say, than a rapper who also reflects 50 Cent's reflects his experience?
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Yeah, what do you think what you were doing by reflecting your experience is better than him or not or no?
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No, it'll be just it's just that'll be hypocritical to ever say
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that you're a better person than anybody
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Because a gangster rapper could be a way nicer person like like people think 50 Cent is way nicer than me
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You know because people talk to me and I'll be like yeah, yeah, you know saying that was like whoa,
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you know so so So if you take like a 50 Centennial, take a song like In the Club, and even though it's talking about violence,
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the ultimate goal of the song is to make you feel good, to make you dance.
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It's people who have a birth, that's the birthday party anthem.
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And that's what I say on my album too.
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I use profanity and I'll say, now throw your mother, your hands get them high.
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And that would be stuff that takes it out of contingency of being considered spiritual.
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But when I say mother, that is, I'm not using it to curse someone.
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But I'm speaking exactly like how I spoke when I was broke, how I speak on an everyday basis, how we all speak.
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And you're also using language that people are used to hearing.
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Yeah.
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And you relate it.
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It's like when you go and you talk to, you speak to, people go and speak to kids.
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And it'll be that one speaker that comes in and he actually says a curse word.
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That curse word sparks everybody's attention.
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And right when everybody's open, he gives you all this information.
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He sneaks it in.
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And that's kind of what I did.
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I spit a lot of stuff where it's like we laugh to keep from crying.
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You know, I put a couple punchlines here and there so you can swallow the pill.
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But certain songs that I'm writing, not just Jesus Walks, All Falls Down was groundbreaking.
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It is said about you that you wrote terrific beats.
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That you were very good at that.
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What is that?
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Well, it's producing beats.
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It's like um...
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Or producing beats.
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Yeah, like I sample and I program drums.
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Yeah. And um...
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And you accelerate the speed.
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Yeah, I speed up beats and...
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But you keep the sound.
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Yeah, but I keep a soulful sound and a lot of times people...
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And you like the lyrics on top of that or the voice.
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Yeah, that's a form of production and grabbing the right artist to put on it.
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Did you do better than anybody else?
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Was that something you were really good at?
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Anybody else I personally knew I was better than, but you know, I didn't know Dre, Timberland, Pharrell at the time.
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But I would say that I was one of the best.
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My father asked me that question back when I was 15.
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I was really, or maybe I was 16.
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He said, I was a photographer back in Atlanta.
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I'll say that, you know, I was pretty good.
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I wasn't one of the best, but son, what do you think you stand?
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And I looked at him, I said, I am the best.
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And this was 16 and that was a little delusion.
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Where do you think that came from this sense of?
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From my grandfather.
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My grandfather on my mother's side.
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If you could hear him talk.
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Yeah.
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He believed in himself.
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He believed in himself and he believed in other people around him that believed in him.
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What do you fear now?
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Um, I don't fear death.
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Because of the accident you felt?
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Because of the accident.
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I feel like I'm here to do a job, and when my job is finished, I go home.
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And going home means what?
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I go to heaven.
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And what do I fear?
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Just fear is like being whack, fear of not having an idea, because at that point I'll be dead.
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My ideas are my air.
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I breathe creativity.
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Does the success that you've had with this album suggest that there was a hunger among the rap audience for something different,
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for somebody who comes along and puts within the.. using all of the techniques that rap is famous for,
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but had a different message.
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And there was a void there and you just drove right through it.
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Yeah, it was a void.
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You know, I was like the boxing coach sitting there watching all these other boxers in the ring.
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I'm like, just go to the gut.
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Just go to the gut.
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And nobody goes to the gut.
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People are winning, winning in everything.
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You know, like some people get knocked out.
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Some people are winning.
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But, you know, I'm like the person they never say could be a boxer all week and everything in comparison.
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But I just get in that ring and hit people dead in the gut.
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Meaning, you know, speak for my soul.
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and I'm knocking all these people out.
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They're like, how did that happen?
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I'm like, I've been telling y 'all for all...
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Yo, it's deep from your soul.
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That's all you gotta do.
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People relate to that. But you know what?
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Once I really found out, I decided I was gonna be a rapper, I just shut up and I stopped telling people.
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And I'd be in the studio with people and I would help them with their tracks.
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But I'd stop helping people with their raps.
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So you stopped helping them with the rap and just stayed with the tracks?
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Yeah, just stayed with the tracks.
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Doing the beat and that's it.
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Yeah, because I used to sit there and come up with lines to help people out.
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And once it was time for me to be a rapper, I said, I'm going to stop giving away the secret.
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Because the thing is, I had a...
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It wasn't just that I'm good.
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I'm not that good of a rapper.
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I mean, I'm getting pretty nice, you know.
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I'm getting pretty nice.
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But you're not that good.
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Yeah, I'm no Jay -Z.
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I'm no Nas.
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But I got a niche.
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I got my thing.
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And what do you think you can do with your thing?
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I could talk I could talk to the people soul
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and I'm kind of like that me
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and Dave Chappelle blew at the same time with exact same person oh
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that right you are you and David Chappelle yes
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because we talk about real issues we talk about racism
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and we put a twist of humor on it
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so people they want to accept it like I say I speak to a girl
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so like Ben and Jerry's and it's like they They want to just hear what else you got to say.
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When you make them smile, then you can style.
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You go, wow.
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I wrote that just now.
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Where will you take this?
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I mean, are you going to be different in terms of what you do?
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We mentioned early on the foundation, which is to give back to kids.
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Yes.
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Where do you see your life going in the next three or four years?
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My goal, back when I used to work really hard when I was 17, 17 and I couldn't buy a beat and I was just struggling
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and I would go in a Gucci store and just browse
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and maybe two months later be able to buy one pair of shoes.
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It was my goal at that time was to be able to do nothing and I used to say that.
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The more successful I get, I see I have to do everything.
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I have to be, take a position like a Russell Simmons and do everything that I can to help everyone around me.
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It'll be like, I'll be 60, 70, 80 years old still doing conferences, still doing what I can to help young kids,
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whether it's in music, whether it's film, whether it's just motivation, kids that don't have fathers.
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Like, I feel like I'm a father to a lot of people.
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My music speaks to them.
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It's a male role model to a lot of kids that don't have a father.
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Now that I see that I'm successful, it's my responsibility to help as many people as I can.
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What do you think Russell has contributed to?
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Not only the music, but to the society.
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Because he's venturing more and more into politics.
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Yeah.
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Prison reform.
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I could say.. particularly with music he broke down a lot of barriers for rappers.
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Like me and Will Smith had a conversation, he talked about how they wouldn't let rappers stay at certain hotels.
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So when they did the tour with Run DMC and Fresh Prince, Russell would specifically book them in a hotel.
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It was like, I'm talking about this, it was like segregation.
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It was like when my grandfather drove the first car in the marches.
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He couldn't get a place to stay.
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Yeah, it was the same thing.
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So he helped fight a lot of, broke down a lot of racial walls.
457
And also was enormously economically successful in creating businesses that he would grow and then sell.
458
Yeah.
459
He was a business mastermind.
460
How about Jay -Z?
461
Oh, you know Jay.
462
Come on now.
463
Come on now.
464
That's like any time I'm around him, I just try to ask as many questions as possible.
465
Now what would you ask him?
466
I would ask him, man, how did you get all that money?
467
Beyonce.
468
Yeah, how did you get Beyonce?
469
No, but I would ask him, and you know, how did you keep it?
470
How did you run this company?
471
How did you do all this?
472
When he had the, what was the best of both worlds tour that became the Jay -Z and Friends tour, I remember sitting at the side of the stage
473
and looking at him say his raps and speak to this crowd of 20 ,000 people and thinking, this man is really a genius.
474
This man really has a grasp.
475
And these are my role models.
476
I'm just a genius in training.
477
Yeah, but what I hear from you is a guy who really does pay attention.
478
And there's a laser -like focus on what everybody else is doing
479
and your appetite to learn and see how you can translate it to your own experience.
480
is central to who you are.
481
Right.
482
Right?
483
That's true.
484
I always tell people I dropped out of school in order to learn.
485
But at the same time, you want to encourage people who are motivated and who believe that college can make a difference in their life.
486
Yeah, definitely.
487
You know, if you want to be a doctor, go to college. Do something.
488
Use school.
489
Don't let it use you.
490
It's big business.
491
You know, that's why a lot of times people go to school.
492
They major in something.
493
They end up becoming a professor.
494
at a different school for the same thing they majored in.
495
Jamie Foxx interviewed you for something what was it?
496
Interview Magazine.
497
For Interview Magazine.
498
Yeah I had some really good pictures in there too I think that was some of my best photography.
499
Oh your photographs?
500
No they photo me.
501
Yeah but I looked really nice in there.
502
Is there any limit to your ambition?
503
No. Or any limit to what you think you can achieve? you?
504
No. Well, no. Because I think right now, if I was to quit rapping and I say I want to go to the NBA,
505
I would be in the NBA.
506
No, you wouldn't.
507
Yes.
508
No, you wouldn't.
509
Yes, I would.
510
No, you wouldn't.
511
Yes, I would.
512
Why would you think you could make it to the NBA?
513
Because I think I could do anything.
514
Have you ever played basketball?
515
Yes, I did.
516
I'm pretty good.
517
You're pretty good?
518
And the thing, I wasn't natural at all, but I ended up being on a team and winning championships and being the point guard.
519
You know, and it just came from, like, my talent is the ability to learn.
520
If I could play you the tracks that I had when I was, you know, in seventh grade and compare that to Jesus Walks,
521
All Falls Down, Stand Up, Overnight Celebrity.
522
Hold on, I'm not finished.
523
I want to name everything I've been nominated for a Grammy.
524
Okay, go ahead.
525
slow jams but if I could play you that right now
526
and show you that track and I'll go
527
and shoot a jump shot right now I miss it yeah
528
it's the same thing as how my tracks were right back you know anything in life
529
that you put your mind to you can do the world
530
the world is your oyster that's all I tell people
531
and I really have a grasp of that being that I nearly died it's this and it's heaven.
532
While you're on earth, especially if you're not incarcerated, you've got to take advantage of this.
533
And that doesn't mean for everybody to be a rapper, for everybody to be a producer.
534
Do what you do to the fullest and live your life and just be happy.
535
It's great to have you here.
536
Pleasure to have you on the show.
537
Thank you.
538
Great.
539
Good luck at the Grammys on February 13th.
540
Okay.
541
This is called The College Dropout.
542
I read all those nominations that he has.
543
Jesus Walk, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, The College Dropout, and then Album of the Year, which he was a producer, The Diary of Alicia Keys.
544
It's great to have you here.
545
Really.
546
Thank you.
547
Great to see you.
548
Back in a moment.
549
Stay with us.
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Real-Life Conversation: A Grammy-Nominated Artist Reflects
The video captures a 2005 interview between Charlie Rose and Kanye West, as they discuss his breakthrough album The College Dropout and 10 Grammy nominations. This dialogue is a goldmine for learning natural, conversational English—filled with personal anecdotes, emotional expression, and casual yet impactful speech. It shows how to articulate confidence, gratitude, and purpose in everyday conversation, making it perfect for practicing real-world communication.
Useful Chunks & Collocations to Memorize
- "stamped it": To give official approval (e.g., "The Grammys stamped it, so now everyone feels okay to like me.")
- "in God's plan": To attribute events to a higher purpose (e.g., "I think it was in God's plan that I survived the accident.")
- "defend your product": To advocate for something you've created (e.g., "You have the right to defend your product after criticism.")
- "get a deal": To secure a professional contract (e.g., "I told my gym teacher I'd get a deal freshman year.")
- "call people out": To challenge others' opinions (e.g., "I felt like I had to call people out and say it deserved better.")
Your Shadowing Challenge: Practice Fluency & Pronunciation
Shadowing is a proven technique to improve English pronunciation and fluency. Here's how to use this dialogue: Play a 10-second clip of Kanye speaking, pause, and repeat it immediately, mimicking his tone, rhythm, and stress. Focus on phrases like "Who's gonna believe a rapper that dresses like Carlton?"—notice how he emphasizes "believe" and "Carlton" for effect. For extra practice, use a shadowing app to record yourself and compare it to the original. This helps train your mouth to form English sounds naturally and builds confidence in speaking. Remember, the goal is to match not just the words, but the emotion behind them. Keep practicing, and you'll soon notice your speech becoming more fluid and natural—just like Kanye's confident delivery in this interview.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to teach · used to sit · used to work |
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | I've been working · I've been telling |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has sold · have been nominated · has happened |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | have been nominated · was just broken · was broken |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.