The highly anticipated conversation between Kanye West and Joe Rogan is here. The rapper appeared on an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Saturday (Oct. 24) and they discussed everything from West’s choice to run for president, his battle with record labels and his views on abortion.
The pair sat down for nearly three hours and the record producer opened up about his bipolar diagnosis, his fashion line and how he plans to fulfill his “calling to be the leader of the free world,” which he says God put in his heart.
On Friday (Oct. 23), Rogan confirmed that the conversation happened by sharing a photo of himself and the Grammy winner. “Oh yeah we did! Dropping tomorrow at 12pm Texas time. Beyond my expectations, and I think people are going to have a much better understanding and appreciation of how this man thinks,” he captioned the Instagram post. “I really enjoyed talking to him, and we had a lot of fun. @kanyewest.”
The fashion designer, who is running for president in the 2020 election, revealed that it was God who made him want to run for office. “It was something God put on my heart back in 2015. A few days before the MTV awards, it just hit me in the shower,” he said. “And when I first thought of it I just started like laughing to myself and all this joy came over my body. Just through my soul and I just felt that energy I felt that spirit.”
When he made the announcement at the Video Music Awards in 2015, he said he was met with people who were “thought projecting” and told him he shouldn’t run for president, including Oprah. “I had different friends that were some people in the music industry, some people tech elites and they would really take it as a joke,” the musician said.
“They’re telling me all these reasons why I couldn’t run for President. […] One of my responses to one of the naysayers was ‘well I’ll definitely be a billionaire by that time’ and not that that’s a reason why someone should become President but it’s to say at that time I was around $50 million dollars in debt and I knew I would have the confidence to be able to turn that around,” he said.
He said after Donald Trump won the election in 2016, it made him realize that people outside of politics could be president. “There couldn’t be a better time to put a visionary in the captain’s chair,” he shared. “I’m not here to down Trump or down Biden, I’m just here to express why God has called me to take this position. I’m a great leader because I listen and I’m empathetic. I do believe in world peace.”
The conversation happened after the “I Love It” rapper reached out to Rogan on Twitter to set up their meeting. He later confirmed that he got in touch with the popular podcast host by sharing screenshots of a FaceTime conversation they had to arrange the conversation.
Watch Kanye West’s entire interview with Joe Rogan below.