Here’s Kanye West Performing a Pretty Awesome Medley on ‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’

We can’t imagine a more difficult interview than the often deliriously off-the-rails Kanye West, but late-night newcomer Seth Meyers handled things pretty well last night. The two touched on familiar Kanye territory already covered at length on Kimmel, on BBC, and in roughly 75 concerts at this point—Kanye’s frustrations with the powers that be who, he says, expect him to act a certain way as a rapper and not a creative force—but when he’s noticeably less turnt, his message is more clear. If less entertaining.

Well, actually, he does compare himself to Michelangelo. And he says he was speaking as a Neo who had “cracked the Matrix.” Good to know the 2013 Kanye is still around!

Meyers also prodded out info on baby North West, and it wouldn’t be the new Late Night without some mention of SNL: Meyers showed a funny sketch originally pitched by Kanye as a musical guest in ’07, featuring him crashing increasingly absurd award show speeches including the Kids Choice Awards, the Nobel Physics prize, and a state fair pumpkin contest. (This predated the Swift thing by two years, which is kind of bizarre.) ”

You laugh to keep from crying. Life is life,” Kanye told Meyers. “There are ups and downs, and they will give an 8-year-old the Best Pumpkin at any given time and you just have to be prepared for these type of things.” Self-awareness? I don’t know what to think.

Of course, the reason we all put up with Kanye’s grandiosity is the music, and in performing a medley of hits—including “Jesus Walks, “Touch the Sky,” “Stronger,” “Heartless,” “All of the Lights,” “Mercy,” and “Black Skinhead”—he proved, once again, that he’s had a truly remarkable decade-long run at the forefront of rap culture. I’ve said before that I’m a Kanye fan, with the caveat that I completely understand why people hate him. But the music is pretty fucking unassailable.

https://dailymotion.com/video/k35dbjdzsPWAWV5Cx5o

[H/T: Miss Info]