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Kanye West on Overcoming Taylor Swift VMAs Scandal: I Needed God, Alcohol, a Lot of Sex

Kanye West on the cover of Interview magazine

Warning: Bum-rushing Taylor Swift onstage on national television can have serious side effects. In a wide-ranging new cover story — featuring hugely elaborate, disturbing renderings — Kanye West rehashes what arguably remains his most infamous moment, in which he crashed Taylor Swift's 2009 MTV Video Music Awards speech and drunkenly argued that Beyonce, not Swift, was the most deserving Best Female Video recipient. Kim Kardashian's fiance and baby daddy, 36, has addressed the topic before, but tells Interview that he took a downward spiral in the wake of the scandal, which even President Barack Obama criticized.

Related: PHOTOS: Kanye's most outrageous moments ever

To get over it all, West tells Interview he turned to "God, sex, and alcohol… a lot of sex"

Now more well-known and talked-about than ever — thanks in part to his connection to Kim, 32, and her mega-famous family — West compares celebrity-dom to being launched into outer space. "Well, I've got my astronaut family. You know, becoming famous is like being catapulted into space – sometimes without a space suit," says the "Bound 2" rapper. "We've seen so many people combust, suffocate, get lost in all these different things. But to have an anchor of other astronauts and to make a little space family."

Related: PHOTOS: Kanye's daughter, North West

"As a celebrity, I have an opportunity to make a living at being the spokesperson for the third or fourth rendition of a thought – promoting something that has already been proven," he continues. "The problem is that I like to be the inventor – I'm the person who works on the concept, who invents new thoughts, who brings new ideas into the universe."

Related: PHOTOS: Who said it -- Miley or Kanye?

The designer — currently taking in Paris Fashion Week and scouting potential wedding venues in France with his love — also explains that he considers himself a "fine artist."

"I'd been in national [art] competitions from the age of 14," West reveals. "I got three scholarships to art schools … and I went to the American Academy of Art. "

Related: PHOTOS: Kimye's sweetest moments

With his often-acclaimed music, he explains, "I just make sonic paintings, and these sonic paintings have led me to become whatever people think of when you say "Kanye West."

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