As you probably already know citizens of the internet, Kanye West was in Sydney last night to promote his new 40 minute film Runaway. It serves as a companion piece to his forthcoming LP My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and centers on a fallen lady Phoenix, played by former Victoria’s Secret model Selita Ebanks, who assumes sexy human form (ie. strategically placed feathers and claw nails), falls in love with Kanye then returns to the fiery ether where she belongs. Along the way there’s some beautifully shot imagery of deer, dinner tables, dancers and Michael Jackson’s visage as well as fireworks, flares and an opium red sex scene which seemed slightly awkward because the dude was sitting right behind me throughout the entirety of the film. He was using his own mouth to sing along to his own music which was used as the soundtrack to his own film. Shit was crazy. Reminded me of this.
Anyway, the film was really great and you should all watch it when it comes out on DVD but the Q&A session immediately after was even better as far as illuminating who Kanye is as a person. There were some totally innocuous questions about how the Phoenix typically represents rebirth and whether, Mr. West, you consciously included so much Phoenix imagery because you yourself were undergoing a transformation (Really, guy? That’s your question?). Kanye answered them all with grace however, and let a few hundred people in on his crazy life and the creative processes it spawns. Here are the top ten things we learnt from Kanye West’s Q&A last night.
1) The film and hence Ye’s album, takes visual inspiration from The Wizard Of Oz and Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood.
2) Prior to his death, Kanye wanted Alexander McQueen to design the all important “Phoenix” costume but settled on Phillip Lim after walking into his shop and liking what he saw.
3) Kanye considers himself, Thom Yorke and Trent Reznor to be the saviours of modern pop music. The main difference between the three is that Kanye gets mainsteam radio airplay.
4) The video was shot over 4 x 20 hour days in Prague.
5) Don’t believe everything you see on the news.
6) The RZA beat that opens the film is big, tough, next level doomsday shit.
7) After the Taylor Swift/ VMA incident he lived without a phone for almost a year, disappeared to Tokyo for three weeks and embarked on a four month internship at Fendi.
8) He intends to turn Runaway into a cartoon, live show and Broadway musical.
9) Kanye coined the term “Hashtag Rap” to describe “trendy” hip hop. We assume it’s pejorative.
10) Apparently there’s only one simile in the entirety of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
Image by: Dimitrios Kambouris via Getty
