Billy Corgan Says Kanye West May Have Borrowed His Fame Playbook: "Didn't I Come First?"

Billy Corgan has a theory about Kanye West, and it’s got a timestamp. On the Popcast podcast, host Jon Caramanica told Corgan he hears a lot of West in him, and Corgan flipped it:“Isn’t it the other way around? Didn’t I come first?”His evidence is pretty specific. During the Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness sessions, West was working at a Gap one block away.

Corgan says when he first saw West’s approach, it looked like the same game he’d been running: pick fights, do crazy shit, and let the public decide whether you’re a genius or an idiot. He called it a“cognitive dissonance game.”The kicker is that the two have spoken only once, a friendly 15-minute phone call, which is a surprisingly small amount of contact for such a big comparison.

It’s all landing while Corgan tours the 30th anniversary of Mellon Collie on the Rats in a Cage Tour, which makes the timing feel very on brand. Two of music’s most provocative figures, one shared strategy, and a Gap that’s suddenly part of rock history. Who do you think really wrote the playbook?