Why does Kanye West never smile?
Kanye West has himself, finally, answered the last one, stating his inspiration is twofold. First, “paintings in an old castle” and second, to mock the very monsters who first identified the phenomenon: the paparazzi.
“Back when I was working on Yeezus,” he tells a reporter at High Snobiety, “I saw this book from the 1800s and it was velvet-covered with brass and everything. I looked at all these people’s photos, and they look so real, and their outfits were incredible, and they weren’t smiling. People, you know, the paparazzi, always come up to me: ‘Why you not smiling?’ And I think, not smiling makes me smile. When you see paintings in an old castle, people are not smiling because it just wouldn’t look as cool.”