Kanye West, What The Hell Is Wrong With You?
For those of you who, like me, don’t watch the MTV Video Music Awards, you may have missed a little tidbit. Last night country singer Taylor Swift won for “Best Female Video” and went up to accept her award. In the middle of her speech Kanye West walked out on the stage, took the mic from her, told her that he was going to “let her finish,” then said something about how Beyonce had made the best video that year. I guess he was upset that Beyonce hadn’t won and wanted to let everyone know this in the middle of the winner’s speech.
That is some goddamn bullshit, Kanye.
Later on that night Beyonce did win the “Best Video” award and said that when she was 17 and up for her first VMA it was one of the most wonderful moments of her life. Then she invited Taylor to come on stage and have her moment. I’m not a big fan of Beyonce but that right there shows a lot of class. Whereas Kanye showed he has NONE.
I mean, WTF Kanye? I am just as eager as you to have my favorite artists or friends win awards. But never would I ever consider interrupting an acceptance speech to give that opinion. Beyonce certainly didn’t seem to appreciate that, and who would? That’s not at all cool.
Kanye is known for being a bad boy and opinionated and I’ve always appreciated him for being outspoken and for saying on TV “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” But that is an entirely different thing from this.
I know Kanye has pulled some award show antics before, but I wonder if he would consider doing that kind of thing to another male artist. Like to run up on Jay-Z, pull the mic, and shout “50 Cent made the best rap video this year and y’all are punks for not recognizing!” Or even pulling the mic from John Mayer to give his love to Maroon 5.
Regardless, that is just some bullshit. I know his mother gave him some better home training than that. The line between bad boy and public asshole has now been crossed. Brother man would do best to step back on the other side.
Yeah, I saw that and was like WTF. I like Kanye; he’s renewing my love for American corporate hip hop by proving that you can be big and still have a brain, a soul, and actual talent. But that was seriously wrong. The poor girl just stood there afterward, like “What the hell did I do to deserve that?” Nothing, sweetie, you just got in the way of an asshole.
And then Beyonce has to give up her moment of triumph to smooth ruffled feathers. The asshole.
When the fact that you’re an asshole out-weights your actual talent, it’s time to change your approach. I began questioning Mr. West’s intelligence when he said that novelists were self absorbed:
“Sometimes people write novels and they just be so wordy and so self-absorbed,” West said. “I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book’s autograph.
“I am a proud non-reader of books. I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life,” he said.
Holy crap, that sounds like one of my ex-boyfriends. =P (Seriously, dudes? Saying something like this to your AUTHOR GIRLFRIEND? Bad idea if you ever want to get laid again.)
What pisses me off more is that so many black men have this attitude toward the written word, and actually think it makes them sound smart.
And–get this–Kanye’s (late) mother was an English teacher.
(And you don’t read novels for information. It’s an art form. Like pop music or rap).
nojojojo, i think a lot of people period have that attitude towards books, its certainly not solely the preserve of ignorant black men.
No, you’re right, and I shouldn’t have implied that; damn. Sorry. My mom has the same feeling about books, sadly, though she’s at least apologetic about it and not proud of it. But I keep dating black men with this problem, so my perception of it is getting a little skewed. -_-
Angry Black Woman,
I must disagree with your contentions that his outburst about George Bush was an “entirely different thing from this.” Don’t get me wrong, I am NO fan of George Bush, and I will always argue that the way in which Katrina was handled was deplorable. However, the manner in which Kanye decided to voice his opinion about the handling of Katrina was deplorable as well. Despite that fact, many supported his actions. Now, because he had an inappropriate outburst that denied a young girl her moment to shine, people (some of which supported his prior outbursts) suddenly want to castigate Kanye and point out how inappropriate his behavior was. I, too, am appalled by his decision to ruin Taylor’s moment in the spotlight. However, I believe that many people share responsibility for his actions. Kanye may have never gotten to the point where he would even consider storming on stage and taking the microphone from a young lady had he been held accountable, rather than lauded, for earlier outbursts. You can’t argue that he is justified in acting a darn fool in some instances and wrong in others. When a grown man cannot figure out how to disagree at an appropriate time, place, and in an appropriate manner, his actions are always wrong–no matter who (including a President that many are not fond of) is on the receiving end. If people had sent that message to Kanye West years ago, maybe Taylor Swift would have never experienced what she had to experience last night.
I can’t speak to Kanye’s other inappropriate outbursts and behavior because I usually hear about them third hand and never in much detail. But my feeling about what he said during the Katrina telethon was it may not have been what others considered the time or place, but Kanye said what a lot of us were feeling, and did it in a place and in such a way as to call attention to an important issue. I feel that’s very different from jumping on stage because he’s mad his friend didn’t win an award. Now it may be that the katrina thing was just another of his antics, that he was just doing ti for his own gain. Still, at that moment I felt he was speaking truth when a lot of people weren’t willing to. And if that made some people uncomfortable, it was necessary because the issue was important.
The issue of Beyonce not getting an award is not important. It’s not people dying, it’s not government neglect and ineptitude, it’s not a social problem. Therefore, this incident ain’t like that one, and I’m comfortable making a distinction between the two.
Now if you want to argue that someone should have put baby boy in his place on other occasions when he acted out because he didn’t get a music award or something of that nature, I agree with you.
I doubt that anyone (let alone Bush) could have come up with a better way to handle Katrina. Katrina was a failure of the LOCAL, STATE, AND REGIONAL government before it was even in Bush’s lap my friends. Therefore, a heck of a lot of people must not care about black people- including other black people.
he was a major ass, as usual and should have known that when he embraced and catered to this crowd a few years ago that any major slip and they might just ‘find a new ___ next year’. he’s been reckless with his words and actions for awhile but the mainstream loved him and though he was known as spoiled they labeled him ‘the good one’, well you done effed up now, and worse, you did it with a young white girl, tsk, tsk.
of course, just like with serena, a bunch of white folks couldn’t help themselves from exposing their bigotry. instead of calling him for what he is (asshat, a-hole, jerk, d-bag, etc) they had to go there on twitter, facebook, and the racist den we all love ‘teh youtubes’ with a plethora of racist epithets
hell, i had to put a few brothas in check about using crap like ‘monkey’ and pulling the ‘he embarrassed all black folk’. he’s responsible for his own actions and there’s nothing he can do, good or bad, that’s going to change peoples minds about my black ass.
hope amber puts that fool in check
In all fairness, not all bigotry is from whites. I prefer to call Kanye inconsiderate and rude for his behaviour the other night, and Serena acted a fool. Race should be left out of it though, I agree.
Leave Ye alone it ain’t that deep. People were less upset about Obama called a liar. It was MTV who cares?
@lala…I have to second that notion. His behavior was deplorable, but it still isn’t all that serious. Obama is probably the most disrespected president EVER!
To Laila: “…People were less upset about Obama called a liar”…? Are u kidding me? Not sure where you live and whom u hang with, but there is much lingering upset at that despicable show of (I believe) racist-infused disrespect in my Minneapolis community and among my peers and workmates.
Take one mediocre-as-hell pop star…err, excuse me ‘rapper,’ who gets praised over and over and over again as the saving grace of hip hop for making records that don’t quite suck as hard as Ludacris and passes for ‘conscious’ for saying the most obvious shit (really? George Bush doesn’t care about Black people? no way!)
Add one awards show celebrating a corporate music culture in which disrespecting women is somehow considered ‘authentically urban’ and/or ‘keeping it real’ even though the records are all distributed and ok’d by rich old white men, and even when the ‘realness’ is being brought by rich ex-Degrassi stars raised by white people in the Toronto suburbs.
Simmer slowly over the funeral pyre of real hip-hop. Serves 1 billion.
I disagree. i think Kanye’s music is quite good. His lyrics are often funny or insightful just as much as they are stupid and crazy. But at least there’s a balance. and he knows how to put together a good beat.
I know, I know, I exaggerate… My beef is less with Kanye’s *decent* skills and more with the sad fact that he *is* one of the best out there right now. If this were, say, 1992 he’d be considered strictly mid-list. But in the post-Mystikal age he’s ‘brilliant.’
Somewhere tonight a single tear is rolling down Rakim’s cheek :P
I like Kanye, but he needs to tone it down a bit.
Taylor Swift and Beyonce are both talented young women. His actions were out of line.
Thank you, Angry. Very well said!