At last year’s VMAs, Kanye West performed a thunderous version of his Yeezus track “Blood On The Leaves” in front of a projection of “Lynching Tree,” a photo from the artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen; it’s a photo of a tree in Louisiana where slaves were once hung. McQueen directed 12 Years A Slave, and like Kanye, he’s got a gift for introducing deeply powerful and intense themes into the mainstream-entertainment universe. And more recently, McQueen interviewed Kanye for Interview magazine. It’s a rare (and short) print interview for Kanye, and even if most of the questioning is along the you’re a genius how do you be a genius line, it’s still gratifying to imagine these two sitting down and forming a bond. There’s also some interesting stuff about the role that Kanye’s life-threatening car crash once played in his artistic development, and some stunning Kanye photos from Steve Klein. Check it out here.

[photo by Kevin Winter @ Hollywood Film Awards, via Getty Images]