Paul McCartney Reveals How He Really Feels About Kanye West

When word got out that Paul McCartney and Kanye West were working on music together, it’s safe to say that a few eyebrows were raised since the two artists come from completely different eras of music, not to mention different genres.

Plus, some might say “The Life of Pablo” creator has made a spectacle of himself with his rants and ridiculously bold claims about being a genius, but how does McCartney really feel about him? Does he like him? Is he inspired by the Chicago rapper?

In an interview with Rolling Stone, the legendary Beatle gave his thoughts on West and what it was like working with him on the songs “Only One,” “All Day” and “FourFiveSeconds” with Rihanna.

“The only deal I made with Kanye was that if it doesn’t work, we won’t tell anyone,” said McCartney. “I’d heard things like ‘He’s got a room full of guys working on riffs, and he walks around going I like that one.’”

In fact, West’s work habits reminded McCartney of another eccentric artist, one who took the art world by storm in the ‘60s,‘70s and ‘80s. “It reminded me of Andy Warhol,” he stated. “These artist who use students to paint their backgrounds and things. It’s a well-used technique. I thought, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to fit into that, but let’s see. Here goes nothing.’”

This isn’t the first time McCartney spoke about working with West. He did it in May while on BBC Radio 4’s “Mastertapes.” In that interview, McCartney said that he received some flak for working with the G.O.O.D. Music founder, particularly on the song “All Day” since it has so many curse words in it. In fact, even Oprah Winfrey tried to talk him out of collaborating with the rapper, but he obviously decided to do it anyway.

“I said ‘Yeah but it’s Kanye,’” McCartney recalled. “And he’s talking about an urban generation that uses that word completely different. It’s the context, so I was actually pleased with it.”

In the sit-down with Rolling Stone, the British singer-songwriter shared some more details about the “All Day” studio session and said one of the melodies actually came from a song he wrote in the ‘60s. “I whistled it for him. His engineer was recording it, and it went into the pool of ingredients,” McCartney explained.

However, the question remains: Overall, how does McCartney actually feel about Kanye West, and does he agree with his genius claims? “I don’t throw that word around,” he said. “I think he’s a great artist.”