Give professional epic ranter Kanye West an hour on the airwaves to talk about himself and he will pay you back in pure gold.

That's what BBC Radio 1 host Zane Lowe found out recently, handing the rapper the mic for a 60-minute interview so full of headline-making quotes that it's being released slowly in 15-minute-long segments.

Yeezy expounds on all matter of topics in the wide-ranging Q&A -- his baby mama, designer water bottles, the King of Pop, civil rights -- but most often the topic is Kanye himself, and that subject is so near and dear that he works himself into a lather about it by the end of the interview's first segment.

"Rap is the new rock 'n' roll," Kanye says. "We the real rock stars, and I'm the biggest of all of them. I'm the No. 1 rock star on the planet."

West does compliment the King of Pop, not uncharitably; however, he manages to bring it back around to himself pretty quickly. "I would not be Kanye West if it wasn't for Michael Jackson," Yeezy says. "I was able to ascend to massive heights. And I've got to a point that Michael Jackson did not break down. I have reached the glass ceiling, as a creative person, as a celebrity and I've been at it for 10 years."

On the subject of Kim Kardashian, Kanye reveals his softer side. "She gave me everything," he says. "She gave me a family. She gave me a support system." And Kanye says he knows how lucky he was to find Kim: "She was in a powerful enough situation where she could love me without asking me for money, which is really hard for me to find."

No doubt Part 2 of the interview will be equally illuminating...

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