Kanye West on His Proposal to Kim: “If I Wanted it to Be Romantic, I Would Have Gone to a Small Restaurant or Something”

Julie Miller

A week after proposing to Kim Kardashian with the help of a misspelled Jumbotron message, an orchestra playing his own music, and a baseball stadium as vacant as his newly minted fiancée gives the impression of being, Kanye West stopped by the hip-hop station Power 106 in Los Angeles today for an interview. Since this was a conversation with Kanye, the discussion naturally and randomly strayed to some of Kanye's favorite subjects-world domination (expect Kanye amusement parks circa 2018), his creative genius ("I am a creative genius"), and his obsession with fashion (sure, he's spent $1,000 on a T-shirt, who hasn't?). But impressively, host Big Boy managed to corral the rapper's attention long enough to coax out new details about his proposal to Kim that have not yet been uncovered by E!, Us Weekly, or any of the other parasitic Kardashian tabloids.

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Among the new revelations about the event:

Kanye did not have any symbolic, personal, or romantic reason for proposing inside a baseball stadium in San Francisco.
"I just thought it would be dope."

Kanye (and Co.) planned the entire proposal.
"Yeah, I planned all of that. It was very much a DONDA exercise. [Blogger's note: DONDA is West's creative agency, named for his late mother.] Like, I sit with my team of creative, and we'll say, 'What's the best version of this? How can we get this.'"

Kanye could not convince Lana Del Rey to fly to AT&T Park and sing "Young and Beautiful" live during his proposal.
So he hired an orchestra to perform her song, which played as West proposed, instead. Kim knew that Kanye was going to propose-it was just a matter of when. "She knew I was eventually going to ask her to marry me. I just had to get that ring right."

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Kanye commissioned three different engagement rings for Kim.
"I worked with four different jewelers, three rings were made, only one, like, actually hit the finger with Lorraine [Schwartz]. She came through."

Kanye was still redesigning the ring hours before the proposal (much to the presumed delight of his jeweler).
"And the ring, I actually changed it the night before. That ring was, like, less than four hours old by the time I gave it to her."

Kanye was more nervous about the proposal performance than the actual proposal.
"I was nervous a little bit. But it was more about it happening on cue."

Kanye had to fight to achieve his artistic vision.
"Yeah, they didn't have the lights exactly like I wanted it to be. I'm arguing with the guy who put it together for me. He's talking about, 'Man it need to be more romantic. I said, 'It's a baseball field. What you talking about? If I wanted to be romantic, I would have gone to a small restaurant or something."

Kanye is sorry about one aspect of the proposal.
"I got to apologize to the race of males for turning up so much."

Kind of off the subject, but: yes, Kim Kardashian has a talent, and Kanye knows what that is.
"Carine Roitfeld said on my girl's birthday, she said-and she was the editor of French Vogue-she said, 'In my industry, beauty is a talent.' People used to be, 'What is [Kim] talented at?' She's talented at being beautiful! Like, if you go to a club, and you see a bunch of beautiful girls, you might say, 'It's a bunch of talent.'"

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