Kanye West Quotes (1977-)
About Kanye West
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Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful Kanye West quotes.
The way you look should be a sin, you're my sensation.”
But now I'm rapping 'bout money, hoes, and rims again.”
They say, 'Oh you graduated?' No, I decided I was finished.”
Scared of the future while I hop in the DeLorean
Scared to face the world, complacent career student
Some people graduate, but be still stupid”
Everything they told me not to is exactly what I would.
Man, I tried to stop, man, I tried the best I could, but
You make me smile.”
Super hard on Thankgiving and Christmas, this can't be right.
Yo, you heard the track I did man, 'This Can't Be Life'.
Somebody please say grace so I can save face
And have a reason to cover my face.”
I can't call it, I got the swerve like alcoholics.
My freshman year, I was going through hella problems
'Til I built up the nerve to drop my ass up out of college.”
Darkness can't take light from me
Haven't you gone far enough?
Sacrificed the ones you love
Gave up on your sanity
Like some twisted fantasy
What would I say to everything?
Your actions cost everything.”
Talk like I drank all the wine
Years ahead but way behind
I'm on one, two, three, four, five
No half-truths, just naked minds
Caught between space and time
This not what they had in mind
But maybe someday...”
'Walk around, always mad' reputation
'Leave a pretty girl sad' reputation
Start a Fight Club, Brad reputation
Close your eyes and let the word paint a thousand pictures
One good girl is worth a thousand bitches
Bound.”
Tellin' her her son's on life support?
And just imagine how my girl feel,
On the plane scared as hell that her guy look like Emmett Till.”
The funny thing is I actually can't be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew
also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda”
Michael Douglas out the car now.
Got the kids-and-the-wife life
But can't wake up from the nightlife
I'm so scared of my demons
I go to sleep with a nightlight
My mind move like a Tron bike
Pop a wheelie on the Zeitgeist.”
Had suffered set-backs, had 'shouldn't-have-said-thats'
Had made everyone mad
Give 'em enough of they own rope to hang 'em with
The paparazzi never really got what my angle is
They treat my married life like some type of entanglement.”
Her love's a thousand miles away
It's 4 AM and I can't sleep
Her love is all that I can see
Memories made in the coldest winter
Goodbye, my friend, will I ever love again?
If spring can take the snow away
Can it melt away all our mistakes?”
I could never take the intimacy
And I know I did damage
'Cause the look in your eyes is killing me
I guess you knew of that advantage
'Cause you could blame me for everything
And I don't know how I'ma manage
If one day, you just up and leave.”
With Judas, kiss and make up
Even with the bitter cup
Forgave my brothers and drank up
Everything old shall now become new
The leaves’ll be green, bearing the fruit
Love God and our neighbor, as written in Luke
The army of God, and we are the truth.”
Hands up, we just doing what the cops taught us
I've been outta my mind a long time
I've been outta my mind a long time
I be saying how I feel at the wrong time
Might not come when you want but I'm on time.
Name one genius that ain't crazy.”
A creative way to rhyme without usin' knives and guns.
Keep your nose out the sky, keep your heart to God,
And keep your face to the rising sun.
I feel like one day you'll understand me, dawg
You can still love your man and be manly, dawg”
Change, he ain't really different
He ain't even try to get permission
Ask for advice and they dissed him
Said I'm finna do a gospel album
What have you been hearing from the Christians?
They'll be the first one to judge me
Make it feel like nobody love me.”
A psychic read my lifeline, told me in my lifetime
My name would help light up the Chicago skyline
And that's why I'm
Seven o'clock, that's primetime
Heaven'll watch, God calling from the hotlines
Why he keep giving me hot lines?
I'm a star, how could I not shine?”
I'm always blaming you, but what's sad, you not the problem
Real friends
I guess I get what I deserve, don't I?
Word on the streets is they ain't heard from him
I guess I get what I deserve, don't I?
Talked down on my name, throwed dirt on him.”
She has no idea what she doin' in college
That major that she majored in don't make no money
But she won't drop out, her parents will look at her funny.
Now, tell me that ain't insecurr,
The concept of school seemed so securr.
Sophomore, three yurrs, ain't picked a carurr.”
Remember when you used to come around and serenade me
But I guess it's gone different, in a different direction, lately
Trying to do the right thing with the freedom that you gave me
Wrap your arms around with your mercy
I give up on doing things my way.”
Then they get critical, no, I'm not doin' no interview
Mask on my face, you can't see what I'm finna do
Had to move away from people that's miserable
And this money could never neglect me
I pray that my family, they never resent me
And she fell in love with me soon as she met me.”
People want to say Obama can't make these moves or he's not executing.
That's because he ain't got those connections.
Black people don't have the same level of connections as Jewish people.
Black people don't have the same connections as oil people.”
I just think that that’s what they’re about is making money.
I don’t think that they have the ability to make anything on their own.
I think they’re born into money, and it makes me feel like they weren’t serving my boy Trump the way they could’ve.”
For me givin' up's way harder than tryin'
Lauryn Hill said her heart was in Zion
I wish her heart still was in rhymin'
'Cause who the kids gon' listen to, huh?
I guess me if it isn't you
Last week I paid a visit to the institute
They got the dropout keepin' kids in the school.”
People sayin' tweeting gonna make you die early
How 'bout have my heart hurting?
Hold it all inside, that could make you die early
I be going through things I had to wrote
Celebrity drama that only Brad'll know
Too many family secrets, somebody passing notes
Things I cried about, I find laughable.”
You're my heaven, you're my hell
You're my now, you're my forever
You're my freedom, you're my jail
You're my lies, you're my truth
You're my war, you're my truce
You're my questions, you're my proof
You're my stress and you're my masseuse
Run from the lights, run from the night, run for your life.”
Her mother, brother, grandmother hate me in that order
Public visitation, we met at Borders
Told her she take me back, I'll be more supportive
I made mistakes, I bumped my head
Them courts sucked me dry, I spent that bread
She need her daddy, baby, please
Can't let her grow up in that ghetto university.”
Straight up out a movie scene
Who knew she was a drama queen
That'd turn my life to Stephen King's?
Just looking at your history
You're like the girl from Misery
She said she ain't take it to this degree
Well, let's agree to disagree
You spoiled little LA girl
You're just an LA girl, you need to stop it now.”
Do I still got time to grow?
Things ain't always set in stone
That be known, let me know
Seems like street lights, glowing, happen to be
Just like moments, passing, in front of me
So I hopped in the cab and I paid my fare
See, I know my destination, but I'm just not there
In the streets
I'm just not there
Life's just not fair.”
I know everybody asked me the question, they wanted to know, 'What, Kan, I know he's gonna wild out, I know he's gonna do something crazy.' Everybody wanted to know what I would do, if I didn't win... I guess we'll never know!”
Sorry I ain't call you back, same problem my father had
All this time, all he had
And what he dreamed, all his cash
Market crashed, hurt him bad
People get divorced for that
Dropped some stacks, pops is good
Mama passed in Hollywood
If you ask, lost my soul
Drivin' fast, lost control
Off the road, jaw was broke
'Member we all was broke?”
Alcohol anonymous, who's the busiest loser?
Heated by the rumors, read into it too much
Fiendin' for some true love, asked Kim, 'What do you love?'
Hard to find what the truth is, but the truth was that the truth suck
Always seem to do stuff, but this time it was too much.”
I done got Lewinskys and paid secretaries
For all my niggas with babies by bitches
That use they kids as meal tickets
Not knowin' the disconnect from the father
The next generation will be the real victims
Had my life threatened by best friends with selfish intents
What I'm supposed to do?
Ride around with a bulletproof car and some tints?”
But can I please give her these flowers?
You know the best medicine go to people that's paid.
If Magic Johnson got a cure for AIDS
And all the broke motherfuckers passed away,
You telling me if my grandma was in the NBA,
Right now, she'd be okay?
But since she was just a secretary
Working for the church for thirty-five years,
Things supposed to stop right here?”
People really know you, push your buttons like typewrite
This is like a movie, but it's really very lifelike
Every single night, right, every single fight, right?
I was looking at the 'Gram and I don't even like likes
I was screaming at my dad, he told me, 'It ain't Christ-like'
But nobody never tell you when you're being like Christ.”
Enter the kingdom
But watch who you bring home
They see a black man with a white woman
At the top floor they gon' come to kill King Kong
Middle America packed in
Came to see me in my black skin
Number one question they're asking
Fuck every question you asking
If I don't get ran out by Catholics
Here come some conservative Baptists
Claiming I'm overreacting.”
Tell me when you think we crossed the line
No more drugs for me, pussy and religion is all I need
Grab my hand and baby, we'll live a hell of a lie
I think I fell in love with a pornstar
And got married in the bathroom
Honeymoon on the dance floor
And got divorced by the end of the night
That's one hell of a life.”
Then you wouldn't have never hit the airport to follow your dreams
Sometimes I still talk to her
But when I talk to her, it always seems like she talking 'bout me
Every interview, I'm representin' you, makin' you proud
Reach for the stars, so if you fall, you land on a cloud
Jump in the crowd, spark your lighters, wave 'em around
If you don't know by now, I'm talking 'bout Chi-Town.”
So I live by two words: 'Fuck you, pay me'
Screaming, 'Jesus, save me'
You know how the game be, I can't let 'em change me
'Cause on judgment day, you gon' blame me
Look, God, it's the same me
And I basically know now, we get racially profiled
'Cuffed up and hosed down, pimped up and ho'd down
Plus, I got a whole city to hold down
From the bottom, so the top's the only place to go now.”
Made her sit in that seat where white folks ain't want us to eat
At the tender age of six, she was arrested for the sit-ins
And with that in my blood, I was born to be different
Now niggas can't make it to ballots to choose leadership
But we can make it to Jacob's or to the dealership
That's why I hear new music and I just don't be feeling it
Racism's still alive, they just be concealin' it.”
"I'd rather argue with you than to be with someone else"
I took a piss and dismiss it like "fuck it"
And I went and found somebody else
Fuck arguing and harvesting the feelings
Yo, I'd rather be by my fuckin' self
'Til about 2 a.m. and I call back
And I hang up and I start to blame myself
Somebody help
You weren't perfect, but you made life worth it
Stick around, some real feelings might surface.”
You been puttin' up with my shit just way too long
I'm so gifted at finding what I don't like the most
So I think it's time for us to have a toast
Let's have a toast for the douchebags
Let's have a toast for the assholes
Let's have a toast for the scumbags
Every one of them that I know
Let's have a toast for the jerk-offs
That'll never take work off
Baby, I got a plan,
Run away fast as you can.”
Three, two, one, you're pinned
Don't you wish the night would go numb?
I've been feelin' low for so long
I ain't had a high in so long
I been in the dark for so long
Night is always darkest 'fore the dawn
Gotta make my mark 'fore I'm gone
I don't wanna die alone
Sadness settin' in again
Three, two, one, you're pinned
Took your thoughts and penciled 'em in
Should've wrote 'em down in pen
And maybe they'd come to life.”
You're bringin' out a side of me that I don't know
I decided we wasn't gon' speak so
Why we up 3 AM on the phone?
Why do she be so mad at me for?
Homie, I don't know, she's hot and cold
I won't stop, won't mess my groove up
'Cause I already know how this thing go
You run and tell your friends that you're leaving me
They say that they don't see what you see in me
You wait a couple of months, then you gon' see
You'll never find nobody better than me.”
My mama told me go to school, get your doctorate
Somethin to fall back on, you could profit with
But still supported me when I did the opposite
Now I feel like there's things I gotta get,
things I gotta do, just to prove to you
You was getting through, can the choir, please
Give me a verse of 'You Are So Beautiful To Me'
Can't you see, you're like a book of poetry
Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, turn one page and there's my mommy.”
Remember we were so young
When I would hold you
Before the blood on the leaves
I know there ain't nothin' wrong with me
Something strange is happening
We could've been somebody
Before they call lawyers
Before you tried to destroy us
How you gon' lie to the lawyer?
It's like I don't even know ya
I gotta bring it back to the 'nolia
All in on that alimony, uh
Yeah, yeah, she got you, homie, yeah
'Til death, but do your part
Unholy matrimony.”
Niggas is pimps, niggas is players
'Til niggas have daughters, now they precautious
Father, forgive me, I'm scared of the karma
'Cause now I see women as somethin' to nurture
Not somethin' to conquer
Now she cuttin' class and hangin' with friends
You break a glass and say it again
She can't comprehend the danger she in
If you whoop her ass, she move in with him
Then he whoop her ass, you go through it again
But how you the devil rebukin' the sin?”
Mercy, mercy me, that Murciélago
Beyond the truest
Hey, teacher, teacher, tell me how do you respond to students?
And refresh the page and restart the memory?
Re-spark the soul and rebuild the energy?
We stopped the ignorance, we killed the enemy
Sorry for the night demons that still visit me
The plan was to drink until the pain over
But what's worse, the pain or the hangover?”
In that magic hour, I seen good Christians
Make brash decisions, oh, she do it
What happened to religion? Oh, she lose it
She putting on her makeup, she casually allure
Text message break-ups, the casualty of tour
How she gon' wake up and not love me no more?
I hit the Jamaican spot, at the bar, take a seat
I ordered the jerk, she said you are what you eat
You see, I always loved that sense of humor
But tonight, you should have seen how quiet the room was.”
And what I loved most, she had so much soul
She said, 'Excuse me, little homie, I know you don't know me
But my name is Windy and I like to blow trees.'
I told her in my heart is where she'll always be
She never messed with entertainers 'cause they always leave
She said, 'It felt like they walked and drove on me.'
Knew I was gang affiliated, got on TV and told on me
I guess that's why last winter she got so cold on me
She said, 'Ye, keep making that platinum and gold for me!'”
Clean water was only served to the fairer skin
Doing clothes, you would've thought I had help
But they wasn't satisfied unless I picked the cotton myself.
So go and grab the reporters
So I can smash their recorders
See, they'll confuse us with some bullshit
Like the New World Order
Meanwhile the DEA
Teamed up with the CCA
They tryna lock niggas up
They tryna make new slaves
See, that's that privately owned prison
Get your peace today
They prolly all in the Hamptons
Bragging 'bout what they made.”
Only playa that got robbed but kept all his jewelry
Alicia Keys tried to talk some sense in him
Thirty minutes later seein' there's no convincin' him
What more could you ask for? The international asshole
Who complain about what he is owed?
And throw a tantrum like he is three years old
You gotta love it though: somebody still speaks from his soul
And wouldn't change by the change or the game or the fame
When he came in the game, he made his own lane
Now all I need is y'all to pronounce my name
It's Kanye, but some of my plaques, they still say 'Kayne'.”
When I awoke, I spent that on a necklace
I told God I'd be back in a second
Man, it's so hard not to act reckless
To whom much is given, much is tested
Get arrested, guess until he get the message
I feel the pressure, under more scrutiny
And what I do? Act more stupidly
Bought more jewelry, more Louis V
My mama couldn't get through to me
The drama, people suing me
I'm on TV talking like it's just you and me
I'm just saying how I feel, man
I ain't one of the Cosbys, I ain't go to Hillman
I guess the money should've changed him
I guess I should've forgot where I came from.”
Everything I'm not made me everything I am.
I know people wouldn't usually rap this
But I got the facts to back this
Just last year, Chicago had over six hundred caskets
Man, killing's some wack shit
Oh, I forgot, 'cept for when niggas is rappin'
Do you know what it feel like when people is passin'?
He got changed over his chains a block off Ashland
I need to talk to somebody, pastor
The church want tithe, so I can't afford to pay
Pink slip on my door, 'cause I can't afford to stay
My fifteen seconds up, but I got more to say--
'That's enough Mr. West, please, no more today.'”
Had to calm her down 'cause she couldn't breathe
Told her she could leave me now, but she wouldn't leave
Oh, don't bring that up, that's gon' get me sentimental
You know I'm sensitive, I got a gentle mental
Every time somethin' happen they want me sent to mental
We had an incident, but I cover incidentals
You want me workin' on my messagin'
When I'm thinkin' like George Jetson
But soundin' like George Jefferson
Then they questionin' my methods then
Plus, what was meant to be was meant to be
Even if, publicly, I lack the empathy
I ain't finna talk about it 'nother four centuries.”
Bought my mom purse, now she Louis Vuitton mom
I didn't play the hand I was dealt I changed my cards
I prayed to the skies and I changed my stars
I went to the malls and I balled too hard
'Oh My God, is that a Black card?'
I turned around and replied 'Why yes,
but I prefer the term African American Express.'
Brains, power, and muscle like Dame, Puffy, and Russell
Your boy back on his hustle, you know what I've been up to
Killing y'all niggas on that lyrical shit
Mayonnaise-colored Benz, I push Miracle Whips.”
But buy a new car, talking 'bout, 'How my neck look?'
Well, it all looks great
Four hundred years later, we buyin' our own chains
The light is before us brothers, so the devil workin' hard
Real family stick together and see through the mirage
The smokescreens, perceptions of false reality
I've been woken from enlightened man's dream
Checkin' Instagram comments to crowdsource my self-esteem
Let me not say too much or do too much
'Cause if I'm up way too much, I'm out of touch
I'm prayin' a out-of-body experience will happen
So the people can see my light, now it's not just rappin'
God, I have humbled myself before the court
Drop my ego when confidence was my last resort.”
(Jesus walks with them)
To the victims of welfare for we livin' in hell here, hell yeah
(Jesus walks with them)
Now, hear ye, hear ye, want to see Thee more clearly
I know He hear me when my feet get weary
'Cause we're the almost nearly extinct
We rappers is role models: we rap, we don't think
I ain't here to argue about his facial features
Or here to convert atheists into believers
I'm just trying to say the way school needs teachers,
The way Kathie Lee needed Regis, that's the way I need Jesus
So here go my single, radio needs this
They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus
That means guns, sex, lies, videotape
But if I talk about God, my record won't get played, huh?”
The music and the clothing are just as important. That's what makes you hip hop. You show people that you're hip hop by what you wear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S78tT_YxF_c
You ain't got the answers Sway! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S78tT_YxF_c&t=17m20s [In response to Calloway suggesting he start a clothing company on his own]”
About all I've been through, I wish I was dreaming
Man, it's hard to be an angel when you surrounded by demons
I watched so many people leave
I see 'em change by the season, that's mama's sеasoning
God got you, the devil's watching, he just peeking in
I know I madе a promise that I'd never let the reaper in
But lately, I've been losin' all my deepest friends
And lately, I've been swimmin' on the deepest end
It's just drugs, it ain't no hugs, it ain't no love there
You been down so much you don't even know what's upstairs
Suicidal thoughts got you wonderin' what's up there
And if I talk to Christ, can I bring my mother back to life?
And if I die tonight, will I see her in the afterlife?
But back to reality, where everything's a tragedy.”
And eventually answers to the call of autumn
All them fallin' for the love of ballin'
Got caught with thirty rocks, the cop look like Alec Baldwin
Inter-century anthems based off inner-city tantrums
Based off the way we was branded
Face it, Jerome get more time than Brandon
And at the airport, they check all through my bag
And tell me that it's random
Is hip-hop just a euphemism for a new religion?
The soul music of the slaves that the youth is missing
But this is more than just my road to redemption
Malcolm West had the whole nation standing at attention.
I was looking at my resume, feeling real fresh today
They rewrite history, I don't believe in yesterday
And what's a Black Beatle anyway, a fuckin' roach?
I guess that's why they got me sitting in fuckin' coach.”
I guess every superhero need his theme music.
** Power
No one man should have all that power
The clock’s ticking, I just count the hours
I embody every characteristic of the egotistic
He knows he's so fucking gifted
I just needed time alone with my own thoughts
Got treasures in my mind, but couldn't open up my own vault
My childlike creativity, purity, and honesty
Is honestly being crowded by these grown thoughts
Reality is catching up with me
Taking my inner child, I'm fighting for custody.
Lost in translation with a whole fuckin' nation
They say I was the abomination of Obama's nation
Well, that's a pretty bad way to start the conversation
Now this'll be a beautiful death
I'm jumping out the window, letting everything go.”
This little light of mine and I'm finna let it shine
I'm finna take y'all back to them better times
I'm finna talk about my mama if y'all don't mind
I was three years old when you and I moved to the Chi
Late December, harsh winter gave me a cold
You fixed me up something that was good for my soul
Famous homemade chicken soup, can I have another bowl?
You work late nights just to keep on the lights
Mommy got me training wheels so I could keep on my bike
And you would give anything in this world
Michael Jackson leather and a glove, but didn't give me a curl
And you never put no man over me
And I love you for that, mommy, can't you see?
Seven years old, caught you with tears in your eyes
'Cause a nigga cheatin', telling you lies, then I started to cry
As we knelt on the kitchen floor
I said mommy I'ma love you 'til you don't hurt no more
And when I'm older, you ain't gotta work no more
And I'ma get you that mansion that we couldn't afford.”
And at this rate, we gon' both die broke
Got friends that ask me for money knowing I'm in debt
And like my wife said, I still didn't say no
People trying to say I'm going crazy on Twitter
My friends' best advice was to stay low
I guess it's hard to decipher all of the bills
Especially when you got family members on payroll
The media said it was outlandish spending
The media said he's way out of control
I can see a thousand years from now in real life
Skate on the paradigm and shift it when I feel like
Troll conventional thought, don't need to question
I know it's antiquated so sometimes I get aggressive
Thank God for Jay Electra, he down with the mission
Did it with no permission, on our own conditions
Most blacks with money have been beaten to submission
Yeezy with the big house, did it way different
Never listen to Hollywood producers
Don't stare at money too long, it's Medusa
The ultimate Gemini has survived
I wasn't supposed to make it past 25.”
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