Kanye West Wants to ‘Fight for the Re-Education of What Celebrity Is’ (Photo)

The rapper remains as modest and non-hyperbolic as ever in his newest interview with GQ

Kanye West is more than just a celebrity, and that’s the theme of the rapper-entrepreneur’s latest interview with GQ.

Predictably, West was full of Kanye-isms in the lengthy Q&A, where he compares himself to a blowfish, wants to “fight for the re-education of what celebrity is,” and stays as modest as always by declaring himself personally responsible for at least 50% of Balenciaga’s men’s shoes sales.

West seems frustrated by the public’s perception of him and seems to want to change that now. West says he’s already changed the way the fashion industry sees him, having transitioned from not even being allowed to attend runway shows to now collaborating with designers, in addition to launching his own fashion line. “I’m here to fight for the re-education of what celebrity is,” he says. “To say, ‘Yes, we are celebrities, but yes, we’re also innovators, we’re also inventors, we’re also thoughtful.’”

See video: Kanye West Booed During Bizarre Onstage Rant

He tells the magazine of his many run-ins with the paparazzi and his reputation for being on the offensive: “I’m a blowfish. I’m not a shark, I’m a blowfish. I wasn’t coming out of my house going to a paparazzi’s house to attack them. I’m defending my family in front of my own house. I’m defending my name as someone’s screaming something negative at me. That’s a blowfish. People have me pinned as a shark or a predator in some way, and in no way am I that. I wouldn’t want to hurt anyone. I want to defend people. I want to help people.”

But he’s got a new album to finish first, which he thinks will drop in September, October or November. One year since its release, he’s — of course — still very proud of his “Yeezus” album. “I think Yeezus is the beginning of a completely new era of music. It was all new rules. It just broke every rule possible. None of the ideas were popular ideas … I would have just liked to have had more nudity in it. That’s the only thing,” West says of his oft-parodied music video “Bound 2.” “I just want to do crazy, colorful shit like that that has more nudity.”

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