Kanye West Hates YouTube (And Its Redesign In Particular)

As a popular musician, Kanye West obviously has a hugely popular VEVO channel. The rapper’s official account has more than 832,000 subscribers and over 827 million views. Despite those big numbers, Kanye still doesn’t care for YouTube. At two separate listening parties for upcoming album Yeezus, West spoke out against the online video platform, claiming that he hates it.

“[I hate YouTube because] the player is so ugly, and it’s presented in such a terrible manner,” West said at a listening party in Basel, Switzerland. “I want everything I do to be presented in an art context, as this is a form of sonic art.” Kanye’s videos are undoubtedly more interesting than some of his contemporaries, though someone should tell him that, most of the time, people are just using his YouTube channel as an impromptu jukebox. Most recently, fans have flocked to YouTube to listen to the two Yeezus songs Kanye performed on SNL

Kanye has also been critical of YouTube’s redesign. “You know how you be on YouTube and it’s a bunch of related videos on the side that don’t got nothing to do with your s***? You may not even like their name or their face next to your s***!” he said at a listening party in New York. “I ain’t want none of that! I don’t want YouTube giving nobody else related suggestions off my s***!” Join the club, Kanye. Maybe if he’s feeling particularly snippy, he’ll throw his star power and business acumen behind a YouTube alternative. If not, he should probably just keep quiet and count his money. Considering his track record, I doubt that will happen.