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Kanye Q&A: His ego, his biggest fears, and more | feb32006_861_lg

KANYE WEST The thing is, it's not like I didn't try hard as hell on the ''Heard 'Em Say'' videos. I've got a bunch of ''Damn, we should have tried this'' regrets. I'm banking on having good taste, and I was off about what I thought would work in the marketplace. It's the one thing in 2005 that I feel like I really failed at.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So in the end, Kanye West is his own worst critic?
In the end, in the middle, and in the beginning. You don't know how bad it hurts to fail like that. So it means so much to me for this next video to be great. Instead of this being the last hurrah, this video could put me back at the awards shows.

Speaking of awards shows, are you excited about your eight Grammy nominations?
If God gave me the choice between winning Grammys or having a really awesome across-the-board ''Heard 'Em Say'' video, I would choose an awesome video. I want you to want to run home to see a Kanye West video.

So you no longer care about winning awards?
Well, when I was making the album I would use the Grammys as one of my muses. The media makes it seem like I feel I should always win even if I'm not in the category. But, duh, I feel like I should win Album of the Year because, um, it was. [Laughs] People always ask, ''What's the key to success?'' And someone will say, ''Well, I don't know, but I know the key to failure is trying to please everybody.''

That sounds like sane advice.
I disagree with that, though. I am scared of failure. I was scared to work on the second album, but I have eight people in the studio while I'm working on a track and I ask them a million questions. ''What did you think of this? Do you think this is it?'' And I want the truth. You can't learn anything from a compliment. So I take all their opinions and by the time the record's out, you can't tell me s--- about it.


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