--- title: Paul McCartney: Compares Kanye West To Andy Wahol description: When Sir Paul McCartney collaborated with Kanye West in 2015, the partnership surprised fans of both artists. canonical: https://time.com/4447076/paul-mccartney-kanye-west-andy-warhol-interview/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-10T21:14:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:35:20.289Z og:title: Paul McCartney Thinks Kanye West Is Like Andy Warhol og:description: "I think he's a great artist." og:url: https://time.com/4447076/paul-mccartney-kanye-west-andy-warhol-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd83c8fa390f1c4e1/6988a1e52dce01de5c9ea438/paul-mccartney-kanye-west-andy-warhol.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Stella McCartney : Front Row - Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2015/2016 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Paul McCartney Thinks Kanye West Is Like Andy Warhol twitter:description: "I think he's a great artist." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd83c8fa390f1c4e1/6988a1e52dce01de5c9ea438/paul-mccartney-kanye-west-andy-warhol.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Paul McCartney Draws the Line at the Word 'Genius' With Kanye West > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 10, 2016 9:14 PM UTC  Paul McCartney and Kanye West attend the Stella McCartney show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2015/2016 on March 9, 2015 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images) Paul McCartney and Kanye West attend the Stella McCartney show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2015/2016 on March 9, 2015 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images) Pascal Le Segretain—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 10, 2016 9:14 PM UTC When [Sir Paul McCartney collaborated with Kanye West](http://time.com/4346122/why-kanye-west-is-a-monster-according-to-paul-mccartney/) in 2015, the partnership surprised fans of both artists but ultimately produced three songs that were undeniable hits, “[All Day](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%5FABk7TmjnVk),” “[FourFiveSeconds,](http://time.com/3681571/rihanna-kanye-west-paul-mccartney-fourfiveseconds/)” and “[Only One](http://time.com/3651636/kanye-west-mccartney-only/).” In an interview with [_Rolling Stone_](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/paul-mccartney-looks-back-the-rolling-stone-interview-w433437), the [legendary artist](http://time.com/4382198/taylor-swift-dave-grohl-paul-mccartney/) elaborated on what it was really like to work with the mercurial rapper, even going so far as to compare Yeezy to the king of pop art, Andy Warhol. “I didn’t know his system. 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,”‘ McCartney said. “It reminded me of Andy Warhol, these artists 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.'” McCartney also recounted the remarkable ways that the songs came to be; during one of the earliest working sessions, McCartney whistled a piece of music he composed back in 1969, which Kanye’s engineer recorded. The whistle later resurfaced in “All Day”. Despite their excellent collaboration, don’t expect Sir Paul to endorse Kanye for [his self-proclaimed “greatest artist of all time” claim](http://time.com/4196396/kanye-west-wiz-khalifa-twitter-spree/). When asked, “do you think Kanye is a genius,” he said, “I don’t throw that word around \[laughs\]. I think he’s a great artist.” McCartney is becoming somewhat of a hip hop head now, listening to everyone from ‘Ye to Drizzy. “I listen to it for, you could call it, education,” he said. “I hear a lot of it and go to concerts occasionally. I went to see Jay Z and Kanye when they toured. I’ve seen Drake live. It’s the music of now.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4447076/paul-mccartney-kanye-west-andy-warhol-interview/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4447076/paul-mccartney-kanye-west-andy-warhol-interview/"},"headline":"Paul McCartney Draws the Line at the Word 'Genius' With Kanye West","datePublished":"2016-08-10T21:14:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:35:20.289Z","description":"The iconic musical artist also compares West to Andy Warhol","url":"https://time.com/4447076/paul-mccartney-kanye-west-andy-warhol-interview/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","Music","Paul McCartney","Kanye West"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd83c8fa390f1c4e1/6988a1e52dce01de5c9ea438/paul-mccartney-kanye-west-andy-warhol.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd83c8fa390f1c4e1/6988a1e52dce01de5c9ea438/paul-mccartney-kanye-west-andy-warhol.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Stella McCartney : Front Row - Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2015/2016","caption":"Stella McCartney : Front Row - Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2015/2016","creditText":"Pascal Le Segretain—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4447076/paul-mccartney-kanye-west-andy-warhol-interview/","name":"Paul McCartney Draws the Line at the Word 'Genius' With Kanye West"}}]}] ```