Kanye West front paged on Time magazine

Posted on August 22, 2005

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Kanye West appears on the latest release of Time magazine, in a complete issue dedicated to Hip Hop.

The interview with Kanye West includes comments on his struggle to break into the hip hop industry and mainstream, and how he finally successfully managed to produce one of the best hip hop albums of last year.

?I?d leave meetings crying all the time,? West told music writer Josh Tyrangiel in this week?s cover story. ?It was a strike against me that I didn?t wear baggy jeans and jerseys and that I never hustled, never sold drugs.?

Dame Dash agreed that West took those in the industry by surprise.

?Kanye wore a pink shirt with the collar sticking up and Gucci loafers,? said former Roc-A-Fella CEO Damon Dash. "It was obvious we were not from the same place or cut from the same cloth.?

Jay-Z also made a few comments.

?We all grew up street guys who had to do whatever we had to do to get by,? Jay-Z told the magazine ?Then there?s Kanye, who to my knowledge has never hustled a day in his life. I didn't see how it could work.?

West?s 2004 debut album The College Dropout sold almost 3 million copies and earned 10 Grammy nominations.

?I had to hustle in my own way,? West said. ?I can?t tell you how frustrating it was that they didn't get that.

The issue also features a two-age ?Roots of Rap? chart which takes you on an adventure of rap, beginning from the 70's to the present date.