16 Self-Love Lessons From Kanye On His Birthday

By JC Villamere. 8 Jun 2018 8:09 AM

No matter whether you love Kanye West, who turns 41 on Friday, we can all agree that Kanye loves Kanye. So why not find inspiration in that? Here are a few times Kanye was at peak self-love.

'Let me tell you about the type of rock star I am ....'

Keystone

'We have to love ourselves before we can love anybody else'

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Harper's Bazaar

Details/GQ

ABC

@kanyedoingthings

Getty

GOOD

'I will completely bow to anybody I respect.'

@kanyedoingstuff

Getty

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'Let me tell you about the type of rock star I am ....'
Keystone
"I’m the type of rock star that likes to have a girlfriend, you know?" Kanye told the New York Times in 2013 of his now-wife, fellow pop-culture dominator Kim Kardashian. It's super self-lovey to refer to yourself as a rock star but Kanye continued in this very romantic way: "I’m the type of soul that likes to be in love and likes to be able to focus. And that inspires me."
'We have to love ourselves before we can love anybody else'
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Harper's Bazaar
“We only got a 100 years here, if we’re lucky,” NME reported that Kanye told his crowd at a Boston concert in 2016. "We need to start thinking of ways to change the way we treat each other, the way we talk to each other, the way we talk about each other.” That's some real talk from Kanye right there.
'I'm #1!'
GQ
His statements are shockingly bold in a culture like ours that is not, like, really big on bragging. “I am the number 1 human being in music. That means any person that’s living or breathing is number 2,” Kanye said on The Wendy Williams Show in 2007, the same year
GQ named him one of their Men of the Year (pictured).
The end-all, be-all
Details/GQ
In 2009, Kanye told the now-defunct Details magazine, “Put this in the magazine: There’s nothing more to be said about music. I’m the f*cking end-all, be-all of music.”
He's being him
ABC
"You're gonna love me or you're gonna hate me, but I'm gonna be me," Kanye told talk show host Jimmy Kimmel in 2013.
Education has value. Kanye said so.
@kanyedoingthings
Look how happy Kanye is as he accepts an honorary PhD from the Art Institute of Chicago, which is one of the top arts schools in the states. His first three albums were called 'The College Dropout,' 'Late Registration' and 'Graduation,' which gives a glimpse of how much time this composer thinks about formal education. He also told Entertainment Weekly, "I’m too busy writing history to read it.”
A degree easier

“When I was giving a lecture at Oxford, I brought up this school because when I went on that mission to create in other spaces, apparel, film, performance, it would have been easier if I could have said that I had a degree at the Art Institute of Chicago,” he told the assembly. Or, as he told
Spin magazine, “I rock a bespoke suit and I go to Harold’s for fried chicken. It’s all these things at once, because, as a tastemaker, I find the best of everything.”
'I love me.'

Yeah, one time, Kanye just tweeted, “I love me.” That's so simple and beautiful, like something a child would say. He also told Rolling Stone, “If you learn from your mistakes, then I’m a f*cking genius.” There's an unexpected helping of humility there among the swears.
'In great style'
Getty
These three words folks. They're legendary. They're powerful. They are precisely how the Pan Am Games described Kanye's performance (and faulty mic-throwing incident) at the closing of the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto. Meanwhile, Time magazine reported, "When it comes to Kanye West’s onstage antics, the question always remains: what’s next?
Canadians caught a glimpse of the future last night during the closing ceremony of the Pan American Games in Toronto. West capped his 13-minute performance by throwing his microphone in the air and storming offstage, apparently frustrated by technical difficulties." However you handle future challenges friends, pay yourself some love and do it "in great style."
He's good
GOOD
“There’s nothing I really wanted to do in life that I wasn’t able to get good at. That’s my skill,” he told the The Guardian. G.O.O.D Music is also the name of the record label he founded in 2004.
Please please ye

"People always say that you can't please everybody. I think that's a cop-out. Why not attempt it? 'Cause think of all the people you will please if you try," Kanye told the
Telegraph in 2006. It looks like he's pleasing fellow rap god Jay-Z in this cute pic.
'I will completely bow to anybody I respect.'
@kanyedoingstuff
Kanye told the New York Times, "I will completely bow to anybody I respect," with regards to music producer Jon Brion, to be clear, but maybe he also said it to Wayne and Garth. Who is to say? All we know is that *bows down* We're not worrrrthy!
He embraces his shortcomings

"I think the fact that I can’t sing that well is what makes '808s' so special," Kanye told the New York Times in 2013 of his 2008 #1 record, '808s & Heartbreak.' "Yeah. I love the fact that I’m bad at [things], you know what I’m saying? I’m forever the 35-year-old five-year-old. I’m forever the five-year-old of something."
Blondye

Here's 2016 Kanye. Remember blond Kanye? “People always tell you, ‘Be humble. Be humble.’ When was the last time someone told you to be amazing? Be great! Be great! Be awesome! Be awesome!” he told The Atlantic magazine. Bold goals for someone who has also tweeted, "“I’m just tryna keep it symmetrical.”
Let's get loud

“I realize that my place and position in history is that I will go down as the voice of this generation, of this decade. I will be the loudest voice,” he told the Huffington Post in 2008.
He's real
Getty
While addressing a graduating high school class in 2005, Kanye said, "When I dropped out of school I had worked in the music industry and had checks cut in my name from record labels and had a record deal on the table, and when I wasn't successful and Columbia said, 'We'll call you,' I had to go back and work a telemarketing job, go back to the real world, and that's how life is," he told Santa Monica High School students. "Life is hard. Take advantage of your opportunities." Kanye did, and look at this picture of him with Paul McCartney at the Grammys! Believe in yourself, kids. Kanye is on to something with this whole self-love thing.

16 Self-Love Lessons From Kanye On His Birthday

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