Kanye West: 'If I gotta be like what everyone else be like, then I don't wanna be liked'

He told an audience the job of an artist is to tell the truth, not to be liked.

In a freestyle reminiscent of 808s & Heartbreak’s ‘Pinocchio Story’, Kanye West delivered an introspective, piano-backed verse during a concert in Manila, Philippines on Sunday night.

“I don’t want to be liked” he sang repeatedly, before expanding: “If I gotta be like what everyone else be like, then I don't wanna be liked.”

“I would rather follow God than follow the media / I would rather follow God than follow perception / Because most artists aren’t appreciated in their own time / So the more I’m disliked the better I must be doing”.

The freestyle winded up his set at the During the Paradise festival, morphing into the chorus of ‘Runaway’.

Elsewhere during the show, Kanye tackled the criticism over The Life of Pablo track ‘Famous’ head on.

"What I wanted you to know the whole time - you know, in the spirit of Nina Simone, in the spirit of real artists - this is the song that broke the writer's block for me because it's something I wanted to say so bad that they told me I couldn't say," Kanye he told the audience.

"That night when I went onstage was the beginning of the end of my life. Lady Gaga cancelled the [2009 joint Fame Kills: Starring Kanye West and Lady Gaga] tour the next day. You know what night I'm talking about - when I just said what everybody else was thinking.

“So if I get in trouble for saying the truth, what's being said the rest of the time? And I had to fight every day of my life when the whole world turned against me for saying out loud what everyone else felt, but that's the job of an artist, of a true artist: not to be controlled by any finances, not to be controlled by perception, but only to be controlled by their truth - what you see, what you feel, and say what you f*cking feel.

“You don't know, it's really overwhelming for me to perform this song for the first time and for you all to react to it in that way. That I fought to make that the first single off of Pablo. If you don't mind I'd like to do this song one more time, can I do it one more time?"

The Life of Pablo set a new album chart record this week, becoming the first album to top the Billboard 200 with over half of its units coming from streams.