Kanye West loves fashion. We hold that truth as irrefutable. Kanye West is also a man who loves to speak his mind. This, too, we hold as irrefutable truth. Sometimes those two facts combine and results in classic quotes only possible from the mouth of Kanye West.
Recently, Kid Cudi aired some grievances on a little website called Twitter.com. It involved fakery within the music industry and Cudi’s haters and rappers “Talkin top 5 and be having 30 people write songs for them.” One comment was particularly notable, though, and that’s when Cudi named rappers he thought were fakers: Mr. Kanye West and Drake.
https://twitter.com/KidCudi/status/776101032191332352
Drake responded in typical Drake fashion, which is to say, semi-corny but victorious. Still on his Summer Sixteen tour, Drake responded during a concert by alluding to O.T. Genasis song “Cut It,” Drake rapped, “Boy, you getting way too high, you need to Cud-it.”
Drake's response to Cudi in Oracle Oakland – "You need to Cud-itttt" #Drake #KidCudi pic.twitter.com/rlTWHTim0s
— Dan (@CreevESeven) September 15, 2016
Kanye, in Tampa for his Saint Pablo tour, also responded: “I am so hurt. I feel so disrespected. Kid Cudi, we are two black men in a racist world.” Kanye’s a disappointed father, or brother, which is reasonable. He signed Cudi to his G.O.O.D. Music label and helped foster Cudi’s career. Ye continued: “I’m out here fighting for y’all creators, artists, independent thinkers. Don’t never mention my name in a bad manner, none of y’all.”
https://twitter.com/iDailyRapFacts/status/776253080979603456
But what we truly care about is another comment Kanye made during his response to Cudi and that’s this: “I wore skinny jeans first. I got called names before you, bruh. Why y’all got to come at me?”
Why do we care? Because this isn’t the first time Kanye mentioned—okay, bragged—about wearing skinny jeans. Two thoughts diverge: a) it was certainly a statement to wear skinny jeans in hip hop’s braggadocio, pimp-centric era from which Kanye emerged but b) what an oddly specific boast, right? With all that Kanye has accomplished, why does he seem proudest of wearing skinny jeans?
And it’s not the first time Kanye has made it clear that he is super passionate about the cut of his denim. Earlier this year Kanye unleashed a salvo of vicious tweets aimed at Wiz Khalifa. The beef was over a misunderstanding that Wiz was dissing Kanye’s wife, Kim Kardashian, when in reality his KK acronym referred to Kalifornia Kush. Kanye has since deleted these tweets after realizing the confusion.
Anyways, amidst the tweet flurry, Kanye wrote the following:
I made it so we could wear tight jeans
Also, related: Kanye complimented Wiz’s pants.
I went to look at your twitter and you were wearing cool pants.
I screen grabbed those pants and sent it to my style team #Wizwearscoolpants
In 2013, Zane Lowe interviewed Kanye West on BBC One in a now-iconic back-and-forth. The pair touched on numerous topics, including Kanye’s designing leather jogging pants, Wreck-It Ralph, and Kanye’s frustration with the fashion industry.
He also (slightly) compared his wearing tight jeans as a Civil Rights Movement. This is one of those situations when Kanye’s stream-of-consciousness-quality of speaking sometimes requires some deciphering. But still:
“Kanye: …now we’re seriously in a Civil Rights movement. Like people used to joke about – remember our South Park photo –
Zane Lowe: Yeah, I do.
Kanye: Remember how funny that was? Do you think there would be a Givenchy in the hood if it wasn’t for that South Park photo. But no one thinks about that – no one thinks about the names I got called for wearing tight jeans
And just in case you were concerned Kanye only worried about skinny jeans, don’t be. Here’s what he told Vanity Fair in 2014:
Sweatshirts are fucking important.
