#1554 - Kanye West

Kanye West (0:06)

Trained by day, Joe Rogan, Podcasted by night. All day.

What's up?

Joe Rogan (0:17)

What's going on, man? Good to see you.

Kanye West (0:18)

Good seeing you, too.

Joe Rogan (0:19)

We finally did it. We're here. We made it happen.

Kanye West (0:21)

We're in the building. Yes, sir.

Joe Rogan (0:24)

So, what are you doing? You're running for president.

Kanye West (0:28)

Yes.

Joe Rogan (0:30)

What made you decide to do that? Aren't you busy enough?

Clothing company, successful rapper, family man?

Kanye West (0:38)

It was something that God put on my heart back in 2015, a few days before the MTV Awards. It just hit me in the shower. And when I first thought of it, I just started laughing to myself. And all this joy came over my body, just through my soul. And I just felt that energy. I felt that spirit. So then two days later, I accepted the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Awards at the MTB Awards. And instead of performing my array of hit songs, I gave just my perspective on award shows. But always, I knew at the end, I was gonna tell people, I'm running for office, I'm running for president in 2020

And just to have the... It even took heart to say it in that context. And people were just like, oh, like their minds were blown. And then I was hanging out with different... I had different friends that were... Some people in the music industry, some people, tech elites, different things like that. And they would really...

They just really took it as a joke.

And they're telling me all these millions of reasons why I couldn't run for president. I remember running into Oprah two days or one day after that. And she's like, you don't want to be president. And people just thought projecting, putting this on you. And I remember saying one of my responses to one of the people, one of the naysayers was, well, I'll definitely be a billionaire by that time. And that's a reason why someone should become president. But as to say, at that time, I was 50, around $50 million in debt.

And I knew I had the confidence that I would be able to turn that around. And now, just going into, I want to just give you, that's a clear answer.

Joe Rogan (2:53)

Right, I know what you're saying.

Kanye West (2:55)

I don't want to go off into a much more ireferred iden.

Joe Rogan (2:57)

What you're basically saying is you know how to set goals, you know how to achieve them.

But what was Oprah's rationale when she said, you don't want to be the president? Like, what was she saying? Because remember when people were saying that that's our next president? Remember when Trump got elected, you know, they showed Oprah and they were saying like there was, I believe it was like NBC tweeted it. This is our next president.

Like they, a lot of people wanted Oprah to want to run. And they felt like if Trump could win, Oprah could win.

Kanye West (3:23)

When I saw Trump win, I was like, see, you can win. I was, you can win if you're coming from outside of politics. I was young when Ronald Reagan was president.

Joe Rogan (3:36)

But Ronald Reagan was the governor of California before he was the president. He had actually proven himself as a politician, at least somewhat.

Kanye West (3:42)

Which is an idea that people have thrown out at me to...

Joe Rogan (3:45)

To be governor of California?

Kanye West (3:47)

To be governor of California.

Joe Rogan (3:48)

It's not anyone's better than this guy.

Just do, just go ahead, start there. Give it a shot. Open things up again, man.

Kanye West (3:57)

But I think my calling is to be...

I believe that my calling is to be the leader of the free world. Not... I mean, if it's in God's plan that part of my path is to be the governor, then that's fine. But my calling is to be the leader of the free world.

Joe Rogan (4:17)

So when you say this, like when you say your calling is to be the leader of the free world, what does that mean to you? Does it mean do you have a plan that's different than the plans that have been implemented before?

Does it mean that you have ideas?

Kanye West (4:29)

What kind of plan?

Joe Rogan (4:30)

Like the plan to be the leader. Like what would you do if you were the leader of the free world? Like what would be different about the way you would handle things? Like if that's your plan, like what is it about that that is your calling?