Whoever wins the 2016 presidential election will have to face the music come re-election day. Kanye West is, indeed, planning a White House bid in 2020.

The rapper said as much during last month’s bloated rant at the MTV Video Music Awards. The declaration set off a social media firestorm, but most observers figured it was just Kanye being Kanye. He’s second only to the GOP front-runner, Donald Trump, for sucking the oxygen out of the cultural conversation.

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Now, West is saying his presidential announcement wasn’t a stunt. He’s in, he vows in an interview with Vanity Fair published Thursday.

“I sit in clubs and I’m like, Wow, I’ve got five years before I go and run for office and I’ve got a lot of research to do,” West said.  “I’ve got a lot of growing up to do,” said West.

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In an odd twist, he had kind words for Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon turned GOP hopeful who is running second to Trump in some polls.

“This is the most brilliant guy,” West said. “As soon as I heard [Ben] Carson speak, I tried for three weeks to get on the phone with him. I was like this is the most brilliant guy.”

Only West isn’t too happy about the current political climate. He said it’s too aggressive, too easy to miss what the real work should be about.

“The idea of this separation and this gladiator battle takes away from the main focus that the world needs help, and the world needs all the people in a position of power or influence to come together,” he said.

“I hate politics. I’m not a politician at all. I care about the truth and I just care about human beings. I just want everyone to win, that’s all I can say, and I think we can.”

But he’s hoping for an unchallenged bid.

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“When I run for president, I’d prefer not to run against someone. I would be like ‘I want to work with you.’”

West would enter the 2020 race with considerable baggage. He sparked outrage when he said, shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the coast South and caused deadly flooding in New Orleans, that President George W. Bush “didn’t care” about black people. He has had several brushes with the law involving paparazzi, and posed as Jesus on the cover of Rolling Stone.

He incurred the wrath of some Jewish-Americans when he said blacks lack the connections that Jewish people have in the business realm. And, if he decides to run as a Democrat, his lavish lifestyle will clash sharply with that party’s income inequality rhetoric.