Quote of the Day

Kanye West:

On using “gay” as a compliment: “Titles are very important. I like to embody titles, y’know, or words that have negative connotations, and explain why that’s good,” he says. “Take the word gay—like, in hip-hop, that’s a negative thing, right? But in the past two, three years, all the gay people I’ve encountered have been, like, really, really, extremely dope. Y’know, I haven’t, like, gone to a gay bar, nor do I ever plan to. But where I would talk to a gay person—the conversation would be mostly around, like, art or design—it’d be really dope. From a design standpoint, kids’ll say, ‘Dude, those pants are gay.’ But if it’s, like, good, good, good fashion-level, design-level stuff, where it’s on a higher level than the average commercial design stuff, it’s, like, gay people that do that. I think that should be said as a compliment. Like, ‘Dude, that’s so good it’s almost . . . gay.’”

-from Just Jared / Details magazine

I love Kanye's music (808s & Heartbreaks is one of the best albums I've listened to) but I also like how fearless he is in expressing himself and his perspective. He tends to annoy a lot of people, which is understandable, but it's interesting to watch someone so successful say and do things that are honest and not obviously (and insultingly) calculated. I acknowledge that everything in that quote isn't the best (like saying he wouldn't go to a gay bar / the stereotype of gays being associated with art/design/fashion) but it's refreshing to see someone in the public eye, especially a hip-hop artist, say something that flies in the face of a community they're associated with.