Kanye West has never been short on opinions and is rarely shy about airing them, so it wasn’t a total shock when the rapper appeared to be about to repeat his much criticised stunt at the 2009 MTV VMA ceremony, when he rudely cut short Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech to announce that Beyoncé should have won Swift’s award.
The nearly victim at this year’s recent Grammy Awards was Beck, whose “Morning Phase” album beat out both the night’s top winner, Sam Smith, and the category’s expected winner, Beyoncé.
Beck seemed as surprised as Kanye evidently was to win the Album of the Year and was struggling to find something to say when West popped up on stage and moved toward Beck as if he was about to take the trophy. Instead, he turned away and quickly jumped down, getting laughs from Beyoncé and Jay-Z, who should probably stop laughing and start to worry about Kanye’s obsession with his wife!
West’s ‘joke’ seemed to go down well and it might have stayed that way – everyone likes stars who mock themselves. Indeed, some might have seen it as a tacit apology for his previous indiscretion and a sign he has grown up. But the self-proclaimed ‘world’s best rapper’ messed it up later when he declared Beyoncé’s eponymous 2014 album the rightful winner.
Appearing on the E! network’s post Grammys show, West’s not untypical diatribe included: “I just know that the Grammys, if they want real artists to keep coming back, they need to stop playing with us. We ain’t gonna play with them no more. And Beck needs to respect artistry and he should’ve given his award to Beyoncé.
“Because when you keep on diminishing art and not respecting the craft and smacking people in their face after they deliver monumental feats of music, you’re disrespectful to inspiration,” West continued. “And we as musicians have to inspire people who go to work every day, and they listen to that Beyoncé album and they feel like it takes them to another place.”
Solidifying his place as perhaps the most laid back artist in pop music, Beck said he agreed with Kanye.
“Absolutely I thought [Beyoncé] was going to win,” he told reporters at an after party. Not only that, Beck then went on to lavish praise on his detractor.
“You can’t please everybody. I still love him and think he’s genius,” Beck said of West. “I aspire to what he does. How many great records has he put out in the last five years, right?”
The Grammys incident was an echo of the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, when West accosted Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech after Swift’s “You Belong With Me” beat Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” for Female Video of the Year.
“Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ma let you finish,” West said after taking the microphone at Radio City Music Hall, “but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!”
West was roundly criticized for his action and was even called a “jackass” by President Obama.
Recording academy president, Neil Portnow said Kanye’s latest moment was part of the excitement of a live television show.
“It’s unpredictable,” he said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen … That turned out to be a fun moment at the end of the day.”
