Kanye West’s Bizarre Conference Call

Kanye West, the man who is arguably keeping classic hip-hop alive in today’s overwhelming popular music industry, took to the airwaves yesterday to broadcast this Def Jam conference call between him, an operator, his label, and a cache of DJs and bloggers who were free to ask questions as long as they abided by the rules of how to “act on the call”: 1) First things first, state your name and affiliation; 2) Do not ask for any drops, etc.; 3) Be respectful; 4) Do not repeat questions. After this intimidating introduction, the conference callers timidly pressed *1 and were rerouted to the man himself. But the vibe was very 2010, very impersonal, very industry, with the date November 22 repeated at every chance the heads could get. Obviously, some weird moments ensued. The first caller, after asking about whether Madlib would be working with Kanye and Jay-Z on their “Watch the Throne” album, tried to sneak in a question about whether he could be Cyhi’s DJ before getting cut off by the Def Jam heads. But nobody asked the question that was the elephant in the room: Kanye, how are you not freaking out about this bizarre, technical, high security conference call?