Just like every hit album gets a deluxe version nowadays, the widely-circulated Kanye West Drink Champs podcast interview has gotten a part two. Released on November 12, the additional 77 minutes of content seems to have been recorded at the same time, and sees West bring Larry Hoover, Jr. into the conversation with N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN.
The interview is essentially more of the same–Kanye gleefully sharing headline-making insider info about his exploits in the worlds of fashion and music. (There are also some eye-roll inducing lines, such as “There’s two types of archetypes: clout-thirsty whores and power-hungry maniacs in this game called life.”)
But while plenty of moments from Drink Champs are already making the rounds online, here are a few of the most choice quotes from Kanye, including some interesting asides that may be overlooked.
Jay-Z was apparently trying to “protect” Kanye with his “red hat” lyric.
On the original version of the DONDA track “Jail,” Jay-Z raps, “Donda, I’m with your baby when I touch back road / Told him, ‘Stop all of that red cap, we goin’ home.’” The lyric was widely seen as Jay, trying to bring West back into the fold following his long public relationship with Donald Trump.
In the Drink Champs conversation, West explained what Jay’s thinking was, and why it frustrated him so greatly. “That’s what Jay said, ‘I’m protecting you by saying the red hat line.’ That’s why I got so irate about it,” he said.
Given Kanye’s demeanor, it’s not surprising that he would chafe at Jay doing that and find it condescending. If there’s one constant about Kanye, it’s that he doesn’t like others speaking for him.
Michael Jordan still won’t meet with Kanye.
During a segment of the interview where N.O.R.E. is likening Kanye to Walt Disney and talking about the hype that accompanies every release of a new Yeezy sneaker, West reveals that he hasn’t been able to sit down with Michael.
“Jordan still won’t meet with me. I’m trying to meet with Michael Jordan, I’m like, ‘Man, it was a song,’” Kanye said, a reference to 2012’s “New God Flow” where West brags about the success and popularity of his sneakers, remarking how “Yeezy just jumped over Jumpman.”
Kanye also explained that Jordan is apparently frustrated at the idea that his partnership with Virgil Abloh is essential for making the ubiquitous sneaker brand cool again.
Kanye said he was “using” the backpack rap aesthetic, but it was never where his heart lay.
Blending the headiness of backpack rap with the accessibility of commercial hip-hop was a core component of Kanye’s early appeal. He raps about as much on songs like “Breathe In Breathe Out” (“First n***a with a Benz and a backpack / Ice chain, Carti lens, and a knapsack”) and the Yeezus cut “I Am a God” (“Pink-ass polos with a fuckin’ backpack / But everybody know you brought real rap back”). But in an eye-opening quote from Drink Champs, Kanye claimed that that whole aesthetic was simply a calculated decision.
“I’m sorry to the backpack community, due to the fact that I was from the streets, but had never killed anybody, it was just easier for me to pose like a backpacker. But I actually really love street n-ggas and I don’t really listen to backpack music like that,” Kanye said. “I listen to Cash Money, Jay-Z, Lil Baby.”
When the show’s hosts point out that many of Kanye’s early collaborators were in the backpack rap/conscious rap subgenre, West says he was “using” their sensibility, particularly offering an uproarious takedown of one-time collaborator Talib Kweli.
“I apologize, once again, to Kweli. I’m sorry. I never fucked with your raps,” Kanye laughed.The next day, Kweli responded by posting two photos of himself and West alongside the likes of Dave Chappelle and Don C. He has previously been critical of Kanye’s support of Donald Trump and Candace Owens, and said that he is consistent in both his public and private critique of West’s actions.
Allegedly, Gap made its hoodies resemble Drake’s latest album cover deliberately.
Last year, Kanye entered into a high-profile partnership with Gap to launch a Yeezy Gap line. The early returns from the collaboration have been positive, but that hasn’t stopped West from criticizing the affordable fashion giant when he feels they’ve wronged him.
“Ain’t nobody care about the Gap ‘til we went to the Gap, bro,” West said on Drink Champs.
Later, West had a comment about the recent launch of Yeezy Gap hoodies, which performed quite well. He accused the company of laying out the hoodies on the website in a way that was deliberately reminiscent of Drake’s Damien Hirst-designed pregnant woman emoji cover for Certified Lover Boy.
“Even when they dropped the hoodies, they made it look like the Drake cover on purpose and didn’t show me,” West said.
Kanye chatted with Jay at Bernard Arnault’s son’s wedding.
Anytime the oft estranged Kanye and Jay are in the same place it’s newsworthy, and according to West on Drink Champs, the pair, who both attended the wedding of LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault’s son, did in fact cross paths at the event. The wedding between Alexandre Arnault and Géraldine Guyot, who founded D’Estrëe, took place in Venice, Italy in mid-October.
“When I saw Jay, I was talking to him about something…and he said, ‘Oh, that’s a conversation I wanna have.’ And after that I went to the bathroom and was thinking, ‘It’s not always about the conversation you want to have. It’s about the conversation.’ If I have a conversation that Jay don’t want to have, he’s gonna avoid the conversation,” West said.
West also said that Jay became his idol when he saw him in the middle of a fight in Atlanta being very “stoic” and poised.
He revealed which Grammy Award he peed on in that viral post.
Since posting it in September 2020, a clip Kanye posted peeing on one of his many Grammys has been viewed more than 33 million times. On Drink Champs, he revealed which award it was, and what his rationale was for the choice.
“When I pissed on the Grammy, I kept on picking up Grammys because it was so many of them. Every time I looked at it, it would be one with someone else. It’d be like, ‘Agh, this got Jay-Z and Rihanna. This got Jay.’ So I actually pissed on the ‘Stronger’ Grammy, because I didn’t want it to be like a double [diss],” West said. “It was my Grammy and my Grammy only.”
West also noted that the following year, he won one more in the Best Contemporary Christian Music Album category for Jesus is King. Truly the duality of Kanye at its most stark.