The 74-year-old former Beatles star appreciated West and called him a great artist with about today's hip hop music, reported Entertainment Weekly.
"I listen to it for, you could call it, education. I hear a lot of it and go to concerts occasionally. I went to see Jay Z and Kanye when they toured. I've seen Drake live. It's the music of now.
"I think Kanye's a great artiste. Take 'My beautiful dark twisted fantasy'. I played it when I was cooking, and it was like, 'This is good. There's some really innovative stuff," McCartney said.
"The only deal I made with Kanye was that if it doesn't work, we won't tell anyone. I didn't know his system. I'd heard things like, 'He's got a room full of guys working on riffs, and he walks around going, 'I like that one.'
"It reminded me of Andy Warhol, these artists who use students to paint their backgrounds and things. It's a well-used technique. I thought, 'I don't know how I'm going to fit into that, but let's see. Here goes nothing.