On Monday, President Barack Obama gave his position on one of the most important issues facing our nation throughout this week, and for once, I think the whole country can agree on his stance:’ Kanye West is a jackass.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, you know Obama has been getting heat for the comment he made off-the-record, but who can blame the guy?
West proved Obama is right on Sunday night at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) when he ran on stage and grabbed the microphone from Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech for Best Female Video for her song ‘You Belong With Me’ and said, ‘Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ma [sic] let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!’
Was anybody really that surprised over West’s outburst? I would hope not, considering that he’s displayed similar behavior at televised events in the past.
West went on a rant at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards, exhibited a tirade at the 2004 American Music Awards and was responsible for the now-famous comments made during a telethon to raise money for Hurricane Katrina survivors Sept. 3, 2005, on NBC.
I never thought that West could create a more awkward situation than the one he created after the Hurricane Katrina telethon when he said ‘George Bush doesn’t care about black people,’ but I may have been wrong about that. At least that statement was directed at a worthy cause instead of a 19-year-old girl.
West wrote an apology note on his blog later Sunday night after being booed by the VMAs audience and removed from the ceremony. The apology seemed half-hearted. For example, West wrote, in his characteristic all-caps fashion, ‘I gave my awards to Outkast when they deserved it over me… That’s what it is!!!!!! I’m not crazy yall, I’m just real. Sorry for that!!!’
He removed that post and replaced it with an abridged and seemingly more sincere version of the apology on his blog Monday writing, ‘I feel like Ben Stiller in ‘Meet the Parents’ when he messed up everything and Robert De Niro asked him to leave… that was Taylor’s moment and I had no right in any way to take it from her. I am truly sorry.’
West even appeared on ‘The Jay Leno Show’ Monday night in an attempt to clear the air saying, ‘I need to, after this, take some time off and just analyze how I’m going to make it through the rest of this life, how I’m going to improve.’
Celebrities can be so over-dramatic. Is it really that hard to stop storming onto stages at awards shows and throwing tantrums? West was right about one thing though. ‘Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)’ is a much better video than ‘You Belong With Me.’ However, does anybody really care that Beyonce lost as much as West does? Most people who watch the VMAs are probably doing so for moments like the West outburst anyway, not because they are betting on the outcome.
West needs to remember to pick his battles. Some things should be protested and some things should just be left alone. Swift won because the majority of the people who still watch MTV are young teenage girls, and MTV is going to cater to that fan base. That’s why a movie like ‘Twilight’ was able to win Best Picture at the MTV Movie Awards earlier this year. Any artist that takes the VMAs as seriously as West does isn’t a true artist. A true artist does not create something with the intention of winning an award for it.
After being brutally mocked on South Park earlier this year, it seemed as though West may have learned his lesson. He responded to the episode on his blog the next day writing, ‘I just wanna be a doper person which starts with me not always telling people how dope I think I am. I need to just get past myself. Drop the bravado and just make dope product. Everything is not that serious.’
The VMAs and other award shows are perfect examples of things that are not that serious. West needs to take his own advice, lay off the cognac, and realize that the only people who care about the outcome of the VMAs as much as he does are probably a bunch of teenage girls.’ ‘

‘- Tommy Bush can be reached at [email protected].