Kanye West Says ‘Ye’ Was Inspired by the Bible: ‘So I’m You, I’m Us, It’s Us’ [VIDEO]

Kanye West gave his first sit down interview following the release of his new project Ye. In his discussion with radio personality Big Boy, he talked about a myriad of things including his “mental condition.” But he also talked about the recording process behind Ye.

Initially, West had a new album in the can before he completely scrapped it and decided to work on his now Ye project. Much of the album’s content was sparked by the backlash from his TMZ Live debacle where he revealed that he was addicted to opioids and said that “slavery was a choice.”

"I wanted something to match that energy" that the "universe is giving me," Yeezy told Big Boy.

“I completely re-did the album after TMZ," he continued. "We just sat there and really honed in on the words because now it’s all headlines, it’s like every bar can be used...you know, there’s even bars we had about that...I took a bar off the album."

When developing the album's tracklist, West wanted to make sure that every song on the album was something he felt good about releasing to the world.

“I just had to stand in front of that board every morning and ask myself, ‘Do these songs truly make me happy? Are these songs I want to play back? Does the song make me cry? Does the song take me somewhere?'" he explains. "I just think that when you start reaching your late 30s, there’s this whole movement like, ‘Nah, when you’re in your 30s, we don’t want to hear no music from you anymore.’ And I just got a place where it’s just art. Period."

Interestingly, West said that the seven-track concept is derived from the No. 7 as it relates to numerology, and the album's title Ye was inspired by the Bible.

“I believe 'ye' is the most commonly used word in the Bible, and in the Bible it means ‘you.’ So I’m you, I’m us, it’s us,” he says. “It went from Kanye, which means the only one, to just Ye – just being a reflection of our good, our bad, our confused, everything. The album is more of a reflection of who we are. Just beings.”

You can watch Kanye West's entire interview with Big Boy above.