Kanye At The VMAs: Heartless

Last Monday, the web sizzled with news that Kanye West hijacked Taylor Swift’s speech during the MTV Video Music Awards. When Taylor (currently the biggest selling artist of 2009) was onstage accepting her Best Female Video award for You Belong With Me, Kanye grabbed the mic and said that Beyonce should have won the award. Towards the end of the program, Beyonce (who was ultimately awarded the top Video Of The Year prize) would call Taylor again onstage to reclaim her moment.



Celebrities quickly rallied against Kanye. Pink, a fellow nominee in Taylor’s category called Kanye “the biggest piece of sh*t on earth.” Kelly Clarkson blogged: The best part of this evening is that you weren’t even up for THIS award and yet you still have a problem with the outcome. I was actually nominated in the same category that Taylor won and I was excited for her...so why can’t you be??

Later, Kanye would have a lucid interval and apologize profusely. But what for? As OneRepublic would sing: it’s too late to apologize.

I want to just laugh this off as an awards show antic (remember the Bruno-Eminem moment at the MTV Movie Awards?). It’s something I expected from Kanye. He has a long history of forcing his opinions in the most inappropriate of occasions.

I never cared for Kanye and I know I never will. I like some of his songs but I am not really a fan. True, he has the talent that makes him standout in the music world. But that talent is overshadowed by his shameless attitude. I think rappers need to market themselves via huge egos (again in reference to Eminem). They need it to assert their street cred. But Kanye is a really bringing “egotistic” to an insensitive and tasteless new level.

I don’t think Kanye did this to show his admiration for Beyonce (she was obviously embarrassed). He did this for himself. Kanye thinks his opinion rises above everybody else’s. FYI, Kanye, awards like the MTV Awards are fans-centric. You are free to make your own KW Awards where you can venerate all your biases.



Now I can’t help wondering if Beyonce’s song Ego was inspired by Kanye.

I am an advocate of respecting people’s opinions. But here’s my two cents: I am not impressed at all by Beyonce’s Single Ladies video. While the song is catchy, all she does in the video is gyrate in stilettos and leotards. Can someone please tell me what is groundbreaking in that (or “one of the best videos of all time,” to quote Kanye)?

This new development in Kanye’s EGO-logy suddenly renders his song Heartless as autobiographical.