Always the envelope-pusher, Kanye West clearly eclipses his “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” shocker with the arrival of next month’s Rolling Stone, which features the Grammy-nominated artist posing on the cover as Jesus Christ.
The photo features West wearing a crown of thorns atop his head, reports AP, while inside the magazine, he is also pictured posing as legendary boxer Muhammad Ali.
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In the Rolling Stone interview, West continues to defend his willingness to lavish praise upon himself.
"In America, they want you to accomplish these great feats, to pull off these David Copperfield-type stunts," he says. "You want me to be great, but you don't ever want me to say I'm great?"
Nominated for eight Grammy awards, including album of the year for his sophomore album, "Late Registration," West notes that his hit song "Gold Digger" was the best song of 2005 and should have been nominated in the Grammy's best rap song category: "That's a gimme Grammy."
The 27-year-old also pulls a Kirk Franklin in the interview and reveals that he is addicted to porn. He says the die was cast at age 5, when he stumbled across his father’s Playboy magazine.
"Right then," he says, laughing, "it was like, ‘Houston, we have a problem.’”
In other Kanye news, “Late Registration” won the inaugural 2005 Readers Choice Award for Best Album from MP3.com, an interactive digital music site for fans and a property of CNET Networks, Inc.
"Hip hop artist Kanye West has been creating a lot of buzz on the site all year,” said Laura Hess, site director, MP3.com. “Our readers, consistent with our editors, selected Kanye West in the best album and best single categories."
Kanye West’s Best Album win narrowly beat runner-up Mariah Carey’s album, “The Emancipation of Mimi.” In the Best Male category, there was also a tight race between incomparable Pharrell Williams and runners-up Brandon Flowers and Coldplay's Chris Martin. Rapper Mike Jones took home MP3.com’s Up & Coming award.
