Kanye Hopes To Make ESPN Highlights With Fonzworth's New LP

[Damien J.]

Kanye West has a reputation for exaggerating now and then, to put it mildly. But if you're sick of hearing his hyperbole, too bad: He says he has no plans to stop going overboard with his stunting.

Talking to MTV News on Wednesday in Los Angeles, he revealed who he thinks is going to be "one of the number-one artists in the game": Fonzworth Bentley.

"They just gonna love it," he said of Bentley's new LP, CoolOutrageousLoversOfUniquely RawStyle, or C.O.L.O.U.R.S. for short — the next album from West's GOOD Music label.

"I'm gonna love it because of the haters," he added. "Even now, I love it. I love the challenge. You know how it is with [Michael] Jordan, how he just started trying other stuff? I feel like Jordan: Let me hit this three-pointer from half-court. If I can make it, it'll definitely make the highlights on ESPN. Bentley is the Play of the Week."

Kanye said he's heard the criticism about Bentley, who's best known as Diddy's assistant.

"I see some greatness in there," West said. "My job in life is seeking out people who are really talented and collaborating with them and applying my name with them to bring them to a pop level. 'Pop' meaning people know about it, whether it be Puff's personal assistant and giving him the lane to be one of the number-one artists. 'Kanye signed Puffy's butler,' that's what the naysayers are saying. At one point in time, I was working at the Gap. I'm Kanye West. That's what I was doing. That was my job. That's how I was able to pay to go to the prom, or whatever I was doing at the time. To get in this game, [working for Diddy] is low on the totem pole of what people did to get in the game. It's only a chosen few. This man is a star."

C.O.L.O.U.R.S. comes out in September, and the first single is "Laid Back."

"Its no secret I love wearing a lot of colors," Bentley said. "I always get asked, 'Bentley, what's your favorite color?' I don't have a favorite color, but I can tell you it ain't white."

Bentley said he's always been writing rhymes on the low, and he got the confidence to come out as an artist after his well-received cameo on Da Band's LP, Too Hot for T.V.

"Anybody who is a fan of hip-hop has written a rhyme at one point," Bentley said. "I kept it on the back burner. ... Actually Jay-Z was like, 'I like your flow on Da Band album.' I said, 'Can I quote you on that?' He was like, 'Yeah.' Then the next day, Kanye called me. They didn't even speak on it. Then I called a good friend of mine, Andre 'Been-Jammin,' you know him as Andre 3000, and said, 'I don't know where to begin.' He said, 'Just go in and record.'

"You'll get an understanding ... that I'm that funny, super-fly, incredibly handsome, very well-educated concert master. Or I'm just that funny guy with the umbrella. I think people will be able to see what's behind the parasol."

Bentley has been working with West and Andre 3000 on the album.

[Don Seer]

spelling colours the english way?

[J Bananas]

spelling colours the english way?

thats how you know its a classy venture.