Kanye West discussed the inspiration behind his provocative new ‘Famous’ video, which premiered at the L.A. Forum Friday night.
A number of very famous figures are shown lying together naked in Kanye West’s provocative new “Famous” video, which premiered at the L.A. Forum Friday night (June 24) – and, according to the rapper, plenty of other celebrities told him “they want to be in the bed” when he showed them a preview of the visual.
“It’s not in support or anti any of [the people in the video],” West, speaking to Vanity Fair, said of the video, which was worked on with various collaborators and took three months to complete. “It’s a comment on fame.”
The “Famous” video depicts lifelike versions of George W. Bush, Donald Trump, Anna Wintour, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian West, Ray J, Amber Rose, Caitlyn Jenner and Bill Cosby.
“Maybe in some alternative universe me and George Bush could have been friends,” he commented. “I could have been his O.J. Simpson black friend on the golf course.”
Of the visual’s artistic inspiration, West – who was inspired by American realist painter Vincent Desiderio – added: “Matthew Barney is my Jesus.”
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Barney is an artist known for his living sculpture work in the film series The Cremaster Cycle. (He has also worked with Bjork, with whom he was in a past relationship. The former couple have a daughter together.)
Despite the nudity featured in his “Famous” video, the rapper said that he was “very careful with shots that had [something] sexual to take them out.”
On Saturday morning, West quipped, “Can somebody sue me already” along with the hashtag #I’llwait in a since-deleted tweet.
“Famous,” a single off of West’s The Life of Pablo album, features a controversial reference to Taylor Swift in its lyrics: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? / I made that bitch famous.”
“[I say] a lot of lines other wives would not allow a husband to say,” West said to Vanity Fair. “But my wife also puts up photos that other husbands wouldn’t let them put up. One of the keys to happiness in our marriage is we’re allowed to be ourselves.”
