Kanye West Writing Book About Why Society Is ‘Obsessed With Photographs’

Kanye West is writing a philosophy booked called Break the Simulation, he told The Hollywood Reporter. The rapper discussed the project, which will be about art and spirituality, in conversation with his interior designer, Axel Vervoordt.

“I’ve got a concept about photographs … about human beings being obsessed with photographs – because it takes you out of the now and transports you into the past or transports you into the future,” the rapper said. “It can be used to document, but a lot of times it overtakes [people]. People dwell too much in the memories. People always wanna hear the history of something, which is important, but I think it there’s too much of an importance put on history.”

Society’s image obsession is literally close-to-home for West since his wife’s book, Selfish, could be source material. Kim Kardashian West published her intimate collection of selfies as a coffee table book in 2015. While West didn’t comment specifically on that book, he referred to her as “a Marie Antoinette of our time.”

“A designer told me that my wife was a master of light and I was a master of time,” said West. “How to use time is equal to being someone who can cut a diamond. The ability to preserve time is more valuable than the ability to preserve a diamond because time is our most valuable resource. So using something timeless to remind us of what time is, is a good bar. When you walked into the room, I had been dealing with a very heavy concept this week that I couldn’t get out of my head. Just the way you’re expressing yourself has lifted the burden on me.” (When Vervoordt asked for clarification about the aforementioned “burden,” West responded, “It’s not good or bad; it’s my creative collaborator being the head of Louis Vuitton.”)

West, according to various reports, is deep into the creative process behind his upcoming eighth LP, one of Rolling Stone‘s 54 Most Anticipated Albums of 2018. He has yet to announce any concrete details about the record, which will follow 2016’s The Life of Pablo.