Editor-in-Chief: Kanye West Opinion

By Alicia Cruz
Editor-in-Chief

Theblackurbantimes

By the time this hits cyber land all of you, like me, will have heard about and/or watched the recaps of Kanye West’s’ embarrassing and reprehensible “act” on stage at the 2009 Video Music Award show Sunday night. Sadly, this isn’t the first time Kanye’s ego and mouth has caused him trouble either. His egotistical request to be addressed as “Martin Louis The King Jr.,” (what in the world was he thinking?) pales in comparison to his latest foot-in-my-mouth antic.

During Sunday evening’s Video Music Award ceremony, blowhard Kanye bum rushed the stage snatching the microphone from poor Taylor Swift’s hand and began shouting, “Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’m gonna let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time,” as a stunned Taylor stood by graciously. Poor Taylor was on stage in the midst of accepting the award she won after beating out Beyonce aka “Sasha Fierce” in the Best Female Video category.

I cringed as I watched it and I cringe every time it’s replayed. Whether it was liquid courage, bad orange juice, tainted water or a personality disorder that caused this blowhard to bum rush the stage and rob Taylor Swift of her moment in the spotlight, is of no consequence, now.
If it was attention Kanye sought, he got it. He’ll likely go down in history as the Most Consecutively Booed Artist at any awards ceremony as he was booed every time his name was mentioned as a nominee. It was embarrassing— and no one can deny that he earned his spot in the Hall of Shame as nitwit of the year. Too add to his booing, he lost in every category for which he was nominated.

Taylor, being the sweet diva that she is, handled that awkward moment as the class act that she is, but she did have this to say to MTV—“Well, you know, I was up there and I was standing there and I saw Kanye up on the stage. I was really excited ... and I kind of wasn’t excited anymore.”

Word is out that Kanye ticked off a lot of people and has probably alienated himself within the industry in ways he could not even fathom on Sunday night. To quote Jerry Maguire, “You know how you’re not quite embarrassed yet, but you glimpse tomorrow’s embarrassment…” Well, I glimpsed the moment’s embarrassment after he exited the stage, today’s embarrassment and next year’s. What a ninny.

So, Kanye got the boot and the show went on, but of course his public lashing didn’t end there. The tweets a la Twitter style were merciless as only die-hard tweeters can do and if I were a betting woman, I would say Kanye and his larger than life, exhaustive ego rolled the dice with his impromptu performance on Sunday… and came up craps kinda like his 52 page book where he offers his "optimistic philosophy" on life. Personally, I think West should have referred back to one of the pages in his book that reads, "Life is 5% what happens and 95% how you react!"

West, author of “Thank You And You’re Welcome,” made an appearence on the Jay Leno show where he became emotional when Leno asked him what his mother would have thought about or said about his onstage bumrush. As heartfelt as his response was meant to be, a lot ofpeople are still crying foul about his behavior. Personally, I think Kanye has his previous over-the-top antics to blame for these responses. Whether he’s actually learned a lesson or not is anyone’s guess. Only time will tell.

Finally, after his Leno appearance, The Associated Press reported that West rang Swift to extend an apology to her after she went on The View and stated that despite West’ public “apologies” (all three) she had not heard from West. Representatives from The View issued this statement after Swift received West’ call: “After the show he spoke personally to the country music superstar via telephone and has apologized to the 19-year-old singer,” a statement from The View read. “She has accepted Mr. West’s apology. The contents of the phone call are to remain private.”

Artists like Kanye really disappoint me when they behave like this for no other reason than appearing to be larger than life. Kanye is old enough and been in the industry long enough to know better. I can’t recall a time when anyone stole his moment in the spotlight at an awards ceremony so for him to do this to a fellow artist is just foul.

The rumor mill churned with word that he may have been intoxicated, but that’s horse bunk too. Blaming it on the alcohol is as lame as his “shout-out” was inappropriate and rude.

Website Pop-Wrap had this to say, “Sure he apologized, but now he needs to atone. So in penance for his poor behavior, we here at PopWrap will not post one solitary story about Kanye West for the next 365 days. No blog links, no music premieres, no love life updates—nothing! Unlike Fivel, we will not go West. And while one single PR blackout isn’t the end all, be all—if you don’t take a stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. So feel free to link metaphorical arms with us and boycott the blowhard. Prove to Kanye that his abhorrent actions have consequences! So have a nice life Kanye, because we’re not interested any more.

No love,

Jarett & Ryan, a.k.a PopWrap

I have to say I agree that his behavior deserves some sort of professional backlash. Artists who choose to behave like this need to be “taxed.” Perhaps it will set a precedent and serve as a warning for any others who choose to allow liquid courage, temporary or egotistical insanity dictate their onstage behavior.

Check out Kanye’s ALLCAPS apology on his Web site:
I’M SOOOOO SORRY TO TAYLOR SWIFT AND HER FANS AND HER MOM.
I SPOKE TO HER MOTHER RIGHT AFTER AND SHE SAID THE SAME THING MY MOTHER WOULD’VE SAID. SHE IS VERY TALENTED! I LIKE THE LYRICS ABOUT BEING A CHEERLEADER AND SHE’S IN THE BLEACHERS! I’M IN THE WRONG FOR GOING ON STAGE AND TAKING AWAY FROM HER MOMENT……….. BEYONCE’S VIDEO WAS THE BEST OF THIS DECADE!!!! I’M SORRY TO MY FANS IF I LET YOU GUYS DOWN!!!!
I’M SORRY TO MY FRIENDS AT MTV. I WILL APOLOGIZE TO TAYLOR 2MRW.
WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD!!!! EVERYBODY WANNA BOOOOO ME BUT I’M A FAN OF REAL POP CULTURE!!! NO DISRESPECT BUT WE WATCHIN’ THE SHOW AT THE CRIB RIGHT NOW CAUSE … WELL YOU KNOW!!!! I’M STILL HAPPY FOR TAYLOR!!!! BOOOYAAAWWWW!!!! YOU ARE VERY VERY TALENTED!!! 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!!! I REALLY FEEL BAD FOR TAYLOR AND I’M SINCERELY SORRY!!! MUCH RESPECT!!!!!”