It turns out Kanye West wasn't joking when he announced his intention to run for United States president at the VMAs. Now he offers his reasons for want to run for the highest elected office.
The artist famously announced his bid for the presidency onstage at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, and since then he has reiterated that once day he'll run to become the leader of the free world.
"If there is anything that I can do with my time and my day, to somehow make a difference while I'm alive, I'm going to try to do it."
He admitted he is "not a politician" and therefore he has a lot to learn. "I don't have views on politics, I just have a view on humanity, on people, on the truth."
He added: "I sit in clubs and I'm like, Wow, I've got five year before I go and run for office and I've got a lot of research to do, I've got a lot of growing up to do."
"We are numb, we are numb to 500 kids getting killed in Chicago a year, we're numb to the fact that it was seven police shootings in the beginning of July... we're numb to places on the Earth that we don't live - like our life is okay but it's okay for other people's lives to not be okay,"The Life of Pablo rapper explained.
"When I talk about the idea of being president, I'm not saying I have any political views," he added. "I don't have views on politics, I just have a view on humanity, on people, on the truth. If there is anything that I can do with my time and my day, to somehow make a difference while I'm alive I'm going to try to do it."
Although Kanye West‘s initial intention was to run for president in 2020, he changed his mind and decided to run for high office in 2024 instead after talking to Donal Trump.
Kanye also said that Trump's victory only reaffirmed his desire to become president. "Rappers are philosophers of our now, celebrities are the influencers of our now, just look at the president," he explained. "(Trump) wasn't in politics and won."
Kanye met with Trump "to discuss a potential role for the rapper," something akin to "an ambassador for sorts." Since then, Kanye has taken to Twitter to offer more details on their discussion. "I wanted to meet with Trump to discuss multicultural issues," such as "bullying, supporting teachers, modernizing curriculums, and violence in Chicago," Kanye tweeted.
He added: "I feel it is important to have a direct line of communication with our future President if we truly want change."
Apparently, that conversation was a productive one as Kanye decided to postpone his presidential run as to not run against Trump in 2020. Instead, he decided to run for president in 2024.
In between performing his biggest hits in his concert in San Jose, California, the rapper reiterated that his own presidential aspirations are still going strong in the wake of this year's election cycle.
"I'm concerned about putting our concept of how to do the (president's) job in a new way and if no one will do it in that way, I will take position in 2020 and do it myself," Kim Kardashian's husband explained.