Kanye West compares himself to Leonardo Da Vinci - then to a chair - to prove, 'I speak through comparisons'

‘People get really uptight about my comparisons, but I’m an extreme speaker’

Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith
Tuesday 23 June 2015 12:38 BST
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Kanye West: "I'm not saying I'm Da Vinci, but..."
Kanye West: "I'm not saying I'm Da Vinci, but..."

Kanye West, the rapper, producer and entrepreneur who has in the past compared himself to everyone from Steve Jobs to Tom Eddison, from Picasso to Braveheart, and from Walt Disney to Willy Wonka, has found himself a new likeness: Leonardo Da Vinci.

In an interview with The Sunday Times ahead of his highly-anticipated Glastonbury performance, West spoke about entrepreneurial nature and his business pursuits outside of his music.

“Imagine if Da Vinci or Michelangelo or Galileo were asked not to think of anything except for the one thing they first became famous for,” he said, suggesting that Da Vinci were only allowed one idea instead of his career of exploration.

“For all haters, I’m not saying I’m Da Vinci, but I feel it’s right for any human being to compare themselves to anything. I could compare myself to this chair, I’m saying, ‘I’ve got one on my back, so I’m a chair’.”

“People get really uptight about my comparisons, but I’m an extreme speaker, and I speak through comparisons,” he added.

But Da Vinci is not the highest accolade West has given himself. Earlier this year West reworked The Bible’s books of Genesis to produce The Book of Yeezus, a “modern day Bible,” in which each and every reference to God has been changed to the rapper’s name.

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