Kanye West insists that Jay Z's music streaming company Tidal is not the Illuminati
West, interviewed in the new edition of PAPER Magazine, discusses his involvement with his friend Jay Z's streaming service Tidal.
In his lengthy interview, West says that he heard a comment likening the Tidal relaunch press conference to the Illuminati.
Jay Z acquired Swedish music streaming company Aspiro ;in March for $56 million, and relaunched its Tidal streaming service with a star-studded press conference in New York. Stars like Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Jack White, Madonna and Daft Punk all showed up to support the new streaming site.
But some people watching the press conference joked that it resembled a meeting of the Illuminati. Complex Magazine dubbed the event "the most lit Illuminati gathering" while Twitter users joked that it was "the closest we are getting to an Illuminati meet with our faves."
Conspiracy theorists claim the Illuminati is a highly secretive organisation that controls the world through banks, the media and politicians.
West says that "if there was actually an Illuminati, it would be more like the energy companies." He goes on to say that musicians are merely "pinpointed as decoys for people who really run the world. I'm tired of people pinpointing musicians as the Illuminati. That's ridiculous. We don't run anything; we're celebrities."
Elsewhere in his interview, West praises Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, saying "Thank God for Steve Jobs" and recounting West's own version of Jobs' dalliances with LSD. "One time I was at the dentist's office and I was given nitrous gas and I was vibing out," West says. "I guess that's my version of Steve Jobs and his LSD trip - when I had this first thought: What is the meaning of life?"