While we do not need art to live, I couldn't imagine a life without it.

All-around 21st-century artist the great Kanye West at Design Miami/ Basel

In general, you have great artists who have died far too early and who have left great cultural impact. If you look at people like Vincent van Gogh or Jean-Michel Basquiat-there's a long, long list of artists who have died in tragic circumstances, and far, far too early.

I think it's a tribute to the artistic importance of hip-hop culture and what hip-hop has brought into music and fashion and jewelry that it is being adapted or imitated or is inspiring variations or new types of art or new types of music.

There has always been a correlation between money and art.

In the early '80s, I was blown away when I began to hear some of the earliest hip-hop songs, and I'm fascinated by all the permutations the genre has gone through.

I think that creative people, wherever they are, in any field, take inspiration wherever they can find it.