Kanye West Covers Paper, Reveals Even More Than Kim Kardashian in Heartfelt Personal Essay

Rapper slams Illuminati rumors, gushes over daughter North West and explains the motivation behind all those times he "looked like a crazy person"

By Rebecca Macatee Apr 20, 2015 8:31 PMTags
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Kanye West isn't baring his butt crack or balancing a glass of champagne on his booty, but he is covering Paper magazine's April 2015 issue!

And although the rapper doesn't get naked à la wife Kim Kardashian, he does reveal some of his innermost thoughts on on life, society, the world and what not. Like, to begin with, Yeezy would like to make one thing clear: He's no Illuminati puppet master, fools!

'Ye explains that he "heard a comment—a joke—about the Tidal press conference being an Illuminati moment," given that it brought Beyoncé, Jay Z, Madonna and more of the usual industry suspects together on a single stage. But Mr. West isn't part of any New World Order nonsense, nor does he seem to believe in any of the conspiracy theories. As he puts it, "If there was actually an Illuminati, it would be more like the energy companies. Not celebrities that gave their life to music and who are pinpointed as decoys for people who really run the world."

"I'm tired of people pinpointing musicians as the Illuminati," he laments. "That's ridiculous. We don't run anything; we're celebrities. We're the face of brands. We have to compromise what we say in lyrics so we don't lose money on a contract."

It's not always easy being a musician, either—there are some low points, too..like that time the Material Girl wiped out at the 2015 Brit Awards. As Kanye puts it to Paper, "Madonna is in her 50s and gave everything she had to go up on an award show and get choked by her cape. She's judged for who she adopts. F--k all of this sensationalism. We gave you our lives. We gave you our hearts. We gave you our opinions!"

Put down the pitchforks, people—'Ye catches himself in his own rant. "Let's just tap back into the real world for a second," he writes, going on to say how "thankful" he is to have a child. "When I look in North's eyes, I'm happy about every mistake I've ever made," he writes. "I'm happy that I fought to bring some type of reality to this world we choose to stay in right now, driven by brands and corporations."

PHOTOS: Keeping up with Kimye!

Keeping it real, Yeezy style. Let's not get crazy in saying creativity is the new currency, though—Kanye readily admits he "believe(s) money is important," writing, "I think that artists have been brainwashed to look at money as a bad thing, and it's not. I think they're equally important in our current civilization."

So we need money, we need art and we need love...We also need generosity! And all those times that Kanye's "looked like a crazy person" ranting about who knows what, he explains, "all I was screaming was, 'Help me to help more! I've given all I've got....'"

Well, somebody's gotta be selfless, right? For much, much more from Yeezus, pick up the new issue of Paper, on stands now.