Following news of the creation of a Kanye West inspired religion earlier in the month, The Daily Mail recently interviewed and profiled the young man behind Yeezianity.

As reported by DX, Yeezianity hinges on the view of the Hip Hop artist as “a divine being who has been sent by God to usher in a New Age of humanity.” In that light, it seems that followers of the religion or movement don’t necessarily profess a belief of West as God as much as akin to a prophet.

Previously remaining anonymous in an interview with Noisey, the religion’s creator pointed to a section of its homepage in explaining the idolization of Kanye West. “We don’t speak of his public persona,” the site reads. “Yeezus is when Kanye elevates to that God-level, which I feel like we all have the potential to do,” he said in the Noisey interview. “That’s why if it takes off, in the future, people would forget Kanye and his antics, and instead focus on what the message is.”

In a new interview with The Daily Mail, the Yeezianity founder has revealed his own identity as well as described the motivation behind founding the Kanye West inspired devotion. Brian Liebman, a 23 year old resident of upstate New York who lives at home with his parents, claims West as one of his most influential role models. “I wouldn’t say I was just a fan,” Liebman says in the MailOnline exclusive, “Kanye has been one of my biggest heroes and I have always aspired to be like him.”

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Liebman, an aspiring musician and producer himself, described his initial desire to connect with West through social media via Yeezianity. “My intention at first was to create something cool that Kanye would maybe see and tweet about,” he said, “but I didn’t expect anything more than that.” Liebman added that Yeezianity allows a more realistic model for living than Christianity’s focus on emulating Jesus Christ. “The idea of becoming like Jesus is intimidating,” he said, “it is blinding, his perfection is so unbelievable, like looking at the sun. But Yeezus is attainable—people can be like that—so Yeezus, I believe, is a stepping stone to Jesus. In other words, Yeezus is a realistic current day model of Jesus.”

The Daily Mail’s interview also finds Liebman celebrating West’s decision to prioritize his own strengths instead of shortcomings. “I think Kanye is hitting on the fact that human beings have a higher potential within them if they believe in it,” he said. “[Kanye] is saying he wants to focus on that—the godlike part of himself rather than the sinner, rather than the flaws.”

Liebman also tells The Daily Mail that besides initially hoping to spark contact with his hero, he hopes that Yeezianity will have a positive effect on the rapper’s own professional and commercial endeavors. “I just really hope this opens the door for [Kanye] to do his fashion thing,” he said. “I can just see how he is passionate about it. If it can help with that in any way that would be awesome.”

The Daily Mail’s profile speculates as to the legitimacy of Liebman’s intentions by raising the possibility that “Yeezianity is simply a highly sophisticated ploy to become famous.” The Mail’s writers also refer to Liebman as a “boy” in the article’s headline and take aim at his selfie-derived public profile images. 

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Yeezianity Founder Brian Liebman Blasts The Daily Mail’s Story

The Yeezianity founder recently took to Twitter to react negatively to The Daily Mail’s interview. In a Tweet posted on Friday (January 24), Liebman claims he agreed to the Mail’s interview on an assumption of anonymity and complains that the publication’s editors exploited him.

As previously reported by HipHopDX, Yeezianity is buttressed by five pillars and the site’s “Declarations of Faith” section encourages readers to join the church via a public, social media blasted profession of faith. Yeezianity’s dedicated Twitter account has retweeted dozens of such professions in which users photograph themselves holding the declaration “I believe in Yeezus.”

RELATED: Kanye West Inspires Yeezianity, The Church of Yeezus