Kanye West Reveals Why He Made Video Game About Angels, Heaven

By Leah Marieann Klett
Kanye West
Kanye West acknowledges attendees before his Yeezy Season 3 Collection presentation and listening party for the ''The Life of Pablo'' album during New York Fashion Week February 11, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Rapper Kanye West has announced a new video game about Heaven called "Only One," named after the song written about his daughter North from the perspective of his late mother, Donda West.

"I worked on a video game and I wanted to show y'all," he said during the premiere of the "Yeezy Season 3" fashion line and debut of his new album, The Life of Pablo, at Madison Square, as Kotaku reports. "The idea of the game is my mom traveling through the gates of heaven."

The trailer of the game, which West revealed at the fashion show, features his mother ascending to heaven on a winged horse and later with angel wings as she floats through the clouds.

"That's not easy to do. Y'all just act like (expletive) is regular, man," West said of the challenges he faced in creating the video game. "No, You don't understand like I go out and meet with everybody in San Fran, and they'll diss the (expletive) out of me and' I'll be I want to make a game' and they be like (expletive ) you. Man this (expletive) was hard to do, man."

West acknowledged that while many may find "Only One" bizarre, he felt compelled to create the game in honor of his mother.

"I feel a lot of times I get misunderstood just as an artist because y'all see so many times artist being controlled by corporations or public perceptions or their current finances or whatever and if you gonna be an artist you just gotta do what's in your heart and fight for every dream that you may dream whatever discipline it may be no one can tell you what field to stay in," he said.

During an appearance on Power 105.1, the rapper further explained the game: "The idea is, it's my mother going through the gates of heaven and you have to bring her to the highest gates of heaven by holding her to the light," he said. "We've been working on it for like six months."

Donda West, a former English teacher who served as her son's manager for several years, passed away in 2007 due to complications with plastic surgery.

In a 2015 interview with Q magazine, West explained that he feels responsible for his mother's death, as he believed she would still be alive if he had not moved to California.  

"If I had never moved to L.A. she'd be alive," West told Q. "I don't want to go far into it because it will bring me to tears."

West's creative brand is also called DONDA in memory of his late mother.

When discussing his upcoming album during a radio interview with Big Boy on real 92.3, the rapper joked that the late Robert Kardashian-lawyer to O.J. Simpson and father of West's wife, Kim Kardashian-is helping him from heaven.

"God is doing the...work," he said. "My mom had [producer] Teddy Riley change his flight and come back to the studio. Robert Kardashian is making sure that all the deals is getting done. He's still doing deals for controversial black people from up in heaven."