10 Questions We'd Like to Ask Kanye West

Just over a year ago, we got the opportunity to hang with Kanye West in an Atlanta recording studio. The resulting conversation led to our issue 35 cover story, which right about now is making us a little nostalgic. Mr. West is a busy man, and we have lots of other artists to cover, but still—it’d be fun to ask him about his brain-melting new album, 808s & Heartbreak. If we got the chance for a special reunion interview, here’s what we’d ask him this time around:

1. How did it occur to you to borrow the theme music from a 10-year-old Gweneth Paltrow-Ethan Hawke makeout scene for your astounding new song “RoboCop”? 
2. Did you try to get Jeezy to sing on “Amazing”?
3. What’s up with the color palate in the liner notes, making them virtually unreadable?
4. Can you show us how to make those drum sounds on “Love Lockdown,” “Bad News” and “See You In My Nightmares”?
   
5. At the end of this album, you include an abysmal live track complete with references to Pinocchio. Um, what was the thinking there?
6. How long did it take you to think of that amazing key change in “Say You Will”? 
7. Are you confident in your singing voice without Auto-Tune?
8. Are you really as sad as this record suggests? If so, why?
9. If not, why did you make such a bummer of an album?
10. So when’s the next record dropping?

Yeezy, baby—holler back!