Inside Kanye West’s Vision for the Future

First he changed the sound of popular music. Then he revolutionized fashion and sneakers. Now, Kanye West is redesigning the very

building blocks of family life—food, clothing, and shelter—and he’s claimed thousands of acres in Wyoming as a test site for his ideas.

We followed West from Cody to Calabasas, and from Cabo San Lucas to Paris, to see it all firsthand—and to talk to him about his next

album, his “altered ego,” and his renewed faith in God.

When Kanye West shows up for breakfast in the central cabin at the ranch he recently bought near Cody, Wyoming, I ask how he’s

doing. “Not good,” he says, turning to look at me. Not good? How come? “Because,” he says, “Kobe was one of my best friends.”

Of course. It’s the morning of January 29—72 hours after Bryant’s shocking death. Somehow, in my head, being out here under the

limitless unfamiliar sky and rocky alien tundra has made the already unimaginable Kobe tragedy seem even less real. Still, it was a

thoughtless question. I have known West since 2003 and have stayed in intermittent contact with him over the years, but it feels like

an inauspicious start to what will become an intense series of experiences and conversations across five weeks and three countries.

The property—formerly Monster Lake Ranch, now rechristened West Lake Ranch—actually has two lakes across its nearly 4,000-acre

expanse. The primary fishing lake has brown trout, brook trout, cutthroat trout, tiger trout, and rainbow trout. There are caves at the

back of the property that have pictographs scrawled on the walls by indigenous tribespeople. This time of year, hundreds of antelope,

mule deer, and a few elk appear on the property. The ranch is also home to colts and geldings, 160 cows, and approximately 700

sheep. humblesleeping cabins clustered along the main driveway, two big barns, the eating cabin (with an upstairs lounge where West

has installed abare-bones studio as well as a whiteboard with “Yeezy Business Development” scrawled across the top), and out across

the acreage, acouple of little un-winterized camp outposts. In fact, other than the name change, the only thing that seems to visibly

mark Kanye’snew ownership are the vehicles: an army of Ford F-150 Raptor pickups, painted an intimidating aftermarket matte black,

along with afleet of 10 imposing SHERP ATVs (also matte-blacked-out), a handful of UTVs (matte black), and of course Kanye’s matte

black tank.