Teyana Taylor Discusses Her Role in Kanye West’s Sensual “Fade” Video

The singer recalls her major VMAs moment.

Among the many memorable moments of the 2016 MTV VMAs was the premiere of Kanye West‘s sensual visuals for his track “Fade.” Enlisted by West to star in the video, Teyana Taylor has impressed many with her workout-inspired dance moves. In a recent interview with Vogue, the 25-year-old singer explains how she landed the role, as well as how she felt when the video was finally released at the awards show.

Read an excerpt of the interview below. You can also head over here to check out the full feature.

On how she felt watching the world premiere of the video:
I was literally shaking because Kanye is very secretive when it comes to projects that he’s very interested in. We hadn’t even seen the video before last night. So when I heard that the video was going to be premiering at the VMAs, I was like “Oh my god, it’s tonight! Do I look good? Do I look great? Is he going to change his mind and not premiere it?” At that point I had already told all of my family, but even when he went onstage and I saw him, I thought he might just wind up doing something completely different because you just never know with Kanye.
On how she became the star of the video:
It was actually crazy because I was in the studio recording and Kanye came by to the other studio next door to record and asked me to come over real quick. And he was like, “Yo, you killed the Lil’ Kim tribute.” And we talked about that a little bit and then I don’t know how we got into a conversation about me and Iman. We just started talking and I was just rambling and rambling about Iman and to him it was a dope moment to just see love like that, to see that you can really have it all. Even with him, his relationship with Kim is so dope. They have kids, they’re married, they have a friendship. Even Kanye having kids has changed him a lot. He was like, “Dang, you’re singing. Your husband just won a championship. You just had Junie.” I think that really inspired him for the video. Literally when I left the studio and went back to my recording room, [a head representative from G.O.O.D. Music] came up to me and said Kanye wanted me to dance to one of his songs—for “Fade.” I was like, “Oh my god, you’re lying.”
On the concept of the video:
When they first reached out about the video, all I knew was that he wanted me to dance. At that point he didn’t have to tell me twice. Our music studio has this room for office storage and so I went in there and I played the song in this room super loud and I’m already dancing and rehearsing. I didn’t even know what the treatment was but I recorded that rehearsal and sent them the video. We later all had a meeting and went over different ideas and the inspiration for the video.
On the choreography of the video:
Yes, I did the choreography. But my boy Guapo was a big inspiration to me; he helped me a lot. And then my homeboy Matthew, he co-choreographed that ending part I was just talking about. Big shout-out to both of them. The moment I found out I was in Kanye’s video, Guapo was the first person I got on the phone with. He was like, “T, you got this.”

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