Kanye West on Louise Wilson: Rapper Cries During Interview Talking About Late Fashion Mentor

"That's never happened to me in an interview before," he said.

ByABC News
February 27, 2015, 11:00 AM
Recording artist Kanye West arrives for the 2014 LACMA Art + Film Gala in Los Angeles on Nov. 1, 2014.
Recording artist Kanye West arrives for the 2014 LACMA Art + Film Gala in Los Angeles on Nov. 1, 2014.
Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images

— -- Kanye West was speaking to Zane Lowe on BBC's Radio 1, when the topic of exclusivity came up.

"Class is the new way to discriminate ... to hold people down, to hold people in their place," West said.

Then the topic shifted to his new venture as a designer and West brought up his former fashion design teacher and mentor, Louise Wilson, who died last year.

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"I went to Louise Wilson's memorial, the greatest fashion instructor of all time. Louise Wilson was the baddest professor of all time, of any fashion school, ever! Notorious for not letting people stop at a 7 or an 8. Pushing people to a 12 ... I didn't know we were going to lose her," he said, regaling on times the two shared, which meant a lot to the professor and teacher.

He also talked about the last time he saw his mentor, getting dinner and leaving the rapper with words of advice.

"I think she knew she was going to pass," he said.

As West was continuing, he broke down and had to stop.

Lowe responded, "Want to take a minute? ... we'll take a minute."

"That's never happened to me in an interview before," he said.

Here's the full interview. He talks about Wilson around the 25-minute mark: