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'Everyone says all great art comes from pain but I think my greatest art comes from excitement and joy,' West says.By Mawuse Ziegbe Kanye West Photo: Getty Images Kanye West is roaring back into the spotlight with a series of much-publicized, surprise visits to technology and media companies from Facebook and Twitter to XXL magazine. At Friday's visit to headquarters, the lyricist broke down the inspiration behind his forthcoming effort. "Everyone says all great art comes from pain but I think my greatest art comes from excitement and joy. It's a.completely different perspective about being extremely excited about stuff that is only cool to me," West enthused in a video interview. The Louis Vuitton Don also discussed some of the things that get him amped. "Like, when I tweeted, 'What's your credenza game?' I was very excited about that credenza," West smiled. Although the outspoken star entered the game as a rapper, West has toyed with the boundaries of hip-hop in his recent music, most notably with his vocally-driven, Auto-tuned, 2008 effort, 808's and Heartbreak. The lyricist revealed during his Stone visit that he sought to widen the scope of his work beyond hip-hop. "It was important.to not be limited by the art form of rap but to have rap bring it to another level," West said. "Is it rap or is it poetry? Is it spoken word? Is it [a] speech?" West also spit some of his favorite bars from his untitled fifth studio album which juxtaposes a range of contradictions. "You're heaven, you're my angel/You're my heaven, you're my hell/You're my now, you're my forever/You're my freedom, you're my jail/You're my lies, you're my truth/You're my war, you're my truce/You're my questions, you're my proof/You're my stress and you're my masseuse," 'Ye rhymed. West reflected on his role as an artist and said he feels an obligation to open the eyes of his fans. "There's people throughout history that their responsibility is to be conveyors of truth onto [the] next generations," West said. "I feel like I'm that type of person that has to carry on the truth and tell the story not hisstory." In addition to looking out for the next generation, West lamented his perceived lack of swagger in the game and called for artists to reach for the "greatness of rock n' roll." "They're all scared. All the people that could be real rock stars just get scared," West said. "It takes so much for a me or an Eminem to come back and embrace and say, 'You know what? We have to deliver this on a major level to make a difference.'" West's album is expected to be released in September. What are you expecting from Kanye West's upcoming album? Let us know in the comments below! Related Artists Kanye West

'It symbolizes how I've had to remove myself from society,' Em says of 'glass-cube' cover.By James Montgomery Eminem (file) Photo: Michael Caulfield/ WireImage It was, to say the very least, unseasonably cold in Detroit back in April — like, 33 degrees cold — but that didn't stop Eminem from ditching his down coat to shoot the cover for his Recovery album. Of course, he wasn't exactly happy about doing it, but at the request of photographer Nigel Parry, he shed his coat and sat in a makeshift living room in Detroit's Hart Plaza, joking, "Oh man, listen, take your time, listen, I am enjoying the weather so f---ing much!" while Parry snapped away. All of this occurs within the first minute of a brand-new, behind-the-scenes video posted late Thursday on Em's official site. The video gives fans an exclusive look at the creation of Recovery's two iconic covers. In part one, we watch him shoot the so-called "glass-cube" cover, which, as Em explains, has a lot more symbolism than you'd think. "It symbolizes, like, what my life is like right now because of the fame, but also kind of how I've had to remove myself from society a little bit, pull back to conquer my demons, my addiction and that whole thing," he says in the video. "It also symbolizes me never leaving Detroit, you know? I'm kinda just sitting in the middle of Detroit, watching TV. And it's kind of my living room, where people are just walking by." The first clip ends with Eminem, Parry and a team of art directors piling into vans to go shoot the second album cover, which Em describes as "the road to Recovery." And then, in an extended gag — designed to make the rest of his crew as cold and miserable as he is — Em goes on a lengthy rant where he spouts self-help mantras ("You gotta take it one day at a time," etc.) while everyone huddles by a van, laughing. At the end of the video, we see a quick scene of Eminem wandering down a deserted stretch of highway, and a title card promises that episode two of the Recovery behind-the-scenes footage will be coming soon. Related Photos The Evolution Of: Eminem Related Artists Eminem