KANYE BEST. Kanye West tops the latest Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll, album-wise and single-wise.

As you might have heard, the recent David LaChapelle cover portrait of West for Rolling Stone stirred a little controversy, but perhaps not as much had, say, the cover portrayed West as Mohammed.

West is also on the cover of the current Entertainment Weekly. Interviewed by Karen Valby, he looks out at the Hoover Dam and says, "I guarantee you that this dam was put together way better than those levees in New Orleans."

He also talks about homophobia: "I remember five years ago I was in this clothing store in Greenwich Village with my old girlfriend. I said the word fag kind of loud and there were some gay dudes in the store. My girlfriend was like, 'Yo, c'mon, step into the new millennium.' Well, my level of consciousness has since raised."

And he's really passionate when it comes to production: "My greatest talent, more so than being a rapper, is the ability to produce, to grab things that seem like they don't belong and put them together. I love building things, all the labor and refining and fine-tuning. My favorite thing in the world is postproduction. I like it more than sex."