♪ (soft piano intro) ♪
- I still haven't seen this yet! (laughs)
- Wait, yo. They did a doc on Kanye?
- I want to be excited for this.
- (narrator) When I first put the camera on this up and coming
producer back in the day...
- It really makes you feel like dude, that could be anybody.
You know, it's a lot more believable in real life
than the Kanye we see who's like a billion dollar mogul now.
- (narrator) No idea where life would take us next.
- (Kanye) Let me explain my side of it though.
- Oh man, this has to get wild.
- It's cool seeing someone come such a long way, you know?
- They've been putting this together for a long time.
- It's really trippy to watch,
'cause I don't look at a lot of stuff from Kanye,
until obviously now, 'cause everything that's going on,
so this is like refreshing to see.
- (man) Remember dude used to just make beats for people?
- I'm sure this won't be polarizing at all.
- Clearly he has not lost his space in the media.
Seeing a little bit of backstory would definitely be very interesting.
- (Kanye) We make a device, this portable Stem Player.
- Oh my God.
- (Kanye) Teenage engineering. - Teenage engineering?
- (laughs) Whenever this new album drops of his,
teenage engineering will be siphoning all of the music
from those devices and putting it online.
- He is making sure if you buy this,
I get that money, which is cool,
but also kinda frustrating.
- (Kanye) Albums moving forward is to spread the gospel.
- (narrator) In that clip, we saw part of Kanye West's response
to Zane Lowe questioning quote, "how proprietary can you be
in an environment where you serve the Lord?"
- That's an interesting question. (laughs)
He asked him a really interesting question.
For how much he's selling them, I think he's selling them 200 a piece.
I mean, either way that was a good move when it comes to business.
Whatever it was to him, it worked. (laughs)
- (narrator) West justified being proprietary
and monetizing his creativity by explaining that the money gains
of Jesus Is King and Sunday Service would be dedicated towards God.
- Bro, 10%?
- (narrator) He listed songs, a portable Stem Player,
and his Wyoming Ranch as examples
of how he's quote "spreading the gospel."
- Dude, this is like the stupid like megachurch stuff.
You know, they're like God says I'm supposed to have like a G7.
- (React) So in this interview,
Kanye is talking a little bit about his newfound faith
alongside some promotions.
He talks about his upcoming album, his Sunday services,
and makes a mention of his Stem Player,
a device that only released to the public actually in the last month,
as of filming this episode.
It's all part of the listening experience
of his newest project, Donda 2.
- Huh, I didn't hear about that. I heard about the second album.
- (React) So what's interesting about this interview in particular
is how he ties his faith to marketing and his craft,
what do you think about that?
- I think the two go hand in hand, you know, like,
this is what you're about, your art, your music,
whatever your craft is is a reflection of yourself,
so you want to embody everything.
- I mean, if that floats your boat, 'cause I know, and me personally,
I wouldn't say that at all,
I would be like I did this for the money.
Straight up, like I wouldn't say anything else, you know?
But if he has his beliefs on that, then I can't knock it, I guess.
- I don't think that you should use religion as a scapegoat
for literally anything,
including gathering a bunch of money for yourself
and being like oh, but it's for this.
- When you throw religion and money into the situation
at the same time, it just looks bad.
It's just, oh, so you're Just a bad person,
but you're going to put God in front of it, to make it okay.
- (React) So have you seen this Stem Player?
- I don't actually know what it looks like.
Oh, you have one? What? (laughs)
- (React) Phil, our trusty associate producer actually bought one!
- Oh, this is fun. - (Phil) Mm-hmm.
- Oh wow. That's kinda cool.
- Oh, why does it look like a piece of bread? (laughs)
- Teenage engineering, he said. (laughs)
- It looks like a boob. (laughs)
I know this isn't supposed to be funny but like, it does!
- You can hear the individual sounds, so you can hear the stems!
This is only because my dad is a musician
that I know what stems are, not even gonna lie.
- Oh I see, and then it separates parts of the instruments and stuff.
Wait, what, okay.
Okay, this is far cooler than I thought it would be.
- It's a lot smaller in person than I thought it was.
I thought it was gonna be like this big, you know?
- You can legit take... (vocals echoing)
I literally am just getting nothing but vocals right now.
- We have the like, hi-hat, I think, from this right here?
I guess this is maybe some keyboard there?
♪ (vocals stuttering) ♪
- We just shut Kanye up for a second.
(crew laughs)
- (React) This is the Stem Player.
It's Kanye's first official product from Yeezy Tech.
This $200 device breaks songs up into four stems,
one for vocals, one for drums, et cetera,
and it allows the users to personalize their listening experience
like you just saw, and it's also the only way
that you can listen to Donda 2 right now.
- Wow, and I just got, I got some content right now from it too, nice.
This is a nice flex, like, have you heard Donda 2?
How would I, you know, I don't have it.
You come through, you're like you wanna listen to it?
That is a really good marketing thing for him.
- I fully support this, you know why?
Because only authentic fans are going to do this.
- It's really cool, it's extremely unique.
- I know the music industry has got many problems with it.
I don't blame him for wanting to break out of it.
- That's dope.
Is it $200 dope?
And will it replace the thing that I already have,
that can already do that?
- I could see like 100 bucks at most,
200 bucks is you're just paying for the name of it, really.
- (Kanye) Like shut the [censored] up, I will [censored] laser you
with alien... - Oh my God!
- (Kanye) I'll explode your [censored] head.
- (narrator) Wow, you guys, Kim and Kanye's divorce drama
is getting uglier by the day.
- How they always catching Kim crying?
- Yeah, this stuff is pretty rough.
Like, I'm not like super into the details,
but I know he constantly calls her out,
and constantly is harassing Pete Davidson.
- (narrator) God wants Kimye to be together,
he recently changed his tune, and started trashing Kim,
her new man, Pete Davidson...
- Oh, I know that he's been trashing Pete, which is messed up.
Look, he didn't do it.
- What is going on?
Where's the faith in this, where's God?
There's no Godliness in this, what?
- (narrator) And called her out for letting North use TikTok.
- That'll do it, that's how you win your girl back.
- (narrator) But a lot of people on social media are saying
Kanye's behavior is not a laughing matter,
and that he needs professional help, ASAP.
- We've been saying that Kanye needs professional help
for a long time, 100%.
- (narrator) Any day, he could change to a depressive episode,
and something bad could happen.
- Yeah, 100%.
- I mean yeah, but, this seems like an odd amount of sympathy
for the harasser.
- (narrator) Kanye West says he's taking accountability
for his recent behavior towards Kim Kardashian.
- I saw that, but then he immediately goes back to doing
what he was doing before, so it's kinda like
how many times can you say sorry and it be completely empty?
- (narrator) And sharing private texts between him and Kim multiple...
- And that's rude.
Like, I get that you got stuff going on,
sharing your personal messages is messed up.
- ♪ He was once a thug ♪ ♪ From around the way ♪
- ♪ My life was never ♪ - ♪ Eazy ♪
- I [censored] with the song though, low key. (laughs)
- ♪ These Yeezy boots everywhere ♪ ♪ Even in the shower today ♪
- What?
- ♪ I got love for the nannies ♪ ♪ But real family is better ♪
- Oh my God, yeah, you can tell that that's Pete Davidson.
What the heck?
- ♪ Point of really being rich for ♪
♪ When you give 'em everything ♪ ♪ They only want more ♪
- And this is coming from the person who has been saying that
all of the stuff that he is doing is for the Lord.
That's your message? Are you serious?
- Yeah, people can say it's cause for concern,
but he's entitled to express however he feels, you know?
Unless he actually puts hands on Pete,
this could just be another thing that people are like
whoa, Kanye's crazy.
- If you had a high school kid in a cinema class,
and he made that about somebody that you know is real,
there would be a whole lot of stuff that happened
if it was that situation,
but because of the fact that it's Kanye West,
I guarantee you, nothing will happen.
- (React) How do you think
legitimate conversations about mental health
factor into this whole conversation?
- I don't, I feel like people use it
as like a crutch to continue their support for Kanye West,
as like, oh, this guy needs help, so it's okay that I still like him,
'cause I know his problems.
- Who knows what really goes on behind the scenes
in his life and his house, and all these things, you know?
We get the little tiny crumbs of it, in reality, you know?
- I don't know, it just seems like virtue signalling to a point.
I imagine people around Kanye have probably said you need help.
- There are certain people who will see that,
and then see that as a way to treat other people,
or see that as something that is okay to do,
even if for the sake of art.
- I suffer with depression and anxiety.
I've sometimes had like tiny manic episodes
and it's not fun, you do feel like you're going insane
and I think it's just really important for people to see
the situation handled a lot better than it's being handled,
and seeing if Kanye would, seeing that it's okay to get help.
It takes a strong person to get through
all of the mental health issues,
but it also takes a strong person, like I said,
to know whenever you need help, and to accept that help.
♪ (upbeat rock outro) ♪