Kanye West Yelled at Photographer Who Asked Him To Pose Like Elvis

Kanye West once snapped at a photographer who asked him to pose like Elvis Presley.

Context

• In a previously unseen video, that surfaced on social media this week, Kanye West was filmed berating acclaimed Korean-German photographer Heji Shin when she gave him advice on posing for a photoshoot in 2018.

 

• The photoshoot, took place in a studio in Los Angeles, while Kanye was still married to Kim Kardashian.

 

• In the video, the New York-based photographer holds up a reference photo of Elvis Presley and asks Kanye to stand like the singer so she can get the right look for the images.

 

• However, Kanye immediately snaps back at Heji for trying to instruct him to pose like Elvis. He shouts at the photographer: “I don’t want nothing that look like Elvis — he stole!”

 

• Kanye’s comments seem to be related to the long-standing claims that Elvis’ music was heavily influenced by little-known Black artists in the same era. Some music critics have suggested that Elvis owes much of his success to Black music culture of the period.

 

• Kanye berated the photographer further: “I’m talking to fake Elvis right now. Give me an African pose… I’m Ye posing like f*cking Elvis?’ However, Kanye soon relaxes and smiles for Heji.

 

• In a feature with Interview magazine in 2019, Heji spoke about how Kanye refused to pose for him during their photoshoot. But the photographer said he understood the rapper’s reluctance to pose

 

• Heji told Interview magazine: ‘This was exactly the challenge Kanye and I had. He’s very aware of this dynamic between making images and being made into an image, and he felt uncomfortable being directed. I could identify with him. For instance, he told me he wouldn’t do poses. He would only look straight ahead into the camera.”

 

But: Kanye’s reluctance to pose like Elvis may seem strange when the rapper once said he wanted to be Elvis at the American Music Awards in 2008.