Kanye West Breaks Down In Tears During BBC Radio 1 Interview

Kanye West is known for his rough edge, but in an interview on Wednesday, the singer/fashion designer showed raw emotion.

Yeezus spoke about his connection to the late, acclaimed fashion professor Louise Wilson, who died in May 2014 from a suspected heart attack at the age of 52, according to Vogue. Louise taught at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

Kanye recently attended Louise’s memorial service on February 20 at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. And in his new interview, he praised her teaching methods to encourage her students to raise the bar.

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“Louise Wilson was the baddest professor of all time of any fashion school ever,” he told BBC Radio 1 host Zane Lowe. “[She was] notorious for not letting people stop at a seven or eight [and] pushing people to a 12.”

The rapper recalled a conversation he had with Louise at the final dinner the two shared together.

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“Last time I saw her we had a dinner at Hakkasan, which is my favorite restaurant in London, and I think that she knew that she was gonna pass and she just wanted to give me some words of advice moving forward. She was asking me about my daughter [North West]. She was asking me about my wife [Kim Kardashian West],” Kanye explained. “And she said, ‘So many students, they don’t give it their all and the problem is [as] soon as they do anything halfway good, when their 2 years old [or] 3 years old, their parents clap.’…And she just looked at me and she said, ‘Kanye, don’t clap.'”

At this point, Zane clapped his hands, prompting Kanye to snicker.

“I didn’t know we were gonna lose her,” Kanye continued. “And she told me, she said, ‘You know, thank you for the times where we came to performances and this is like really meant a lot to me.’ You know, she would…”

Kanye paused mid-sentence and covered his eyes with right hand and then his left hand followed to hide his tears.

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Sensing just how upset Kanye was over the loss of Louise, Zane said, “Want to take a minute? We’ll take a minute.”

Kanye walked off set to compose himself momentarily.

“That’s never happened to me in an interview before,” he admitted upon his return.

The interview then continued, but there was no further mention of Louise.

— Paige Feigenbaum