Kanye West is an absolutely brilliant rapper and producer, but there are times when he really needs to keep his mouth shut. One such time came back in 2009 when he interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance of the award for Best Female Video at the MTV Music Video Awards, in which he said the award should have gone to Beyoncé instead. West was at it again during Sunday night’s Grammy awards but this time there was some question about just how serious he was about trying to diminish someone else’s accomplishment. As it sadly turned out, he was very serious.
RELATED: Paul McCartney teams with Kanye, Rihanna to deliver a generation-spanning hit single
It started when Kanye jumped up on stage and looked like he was about to say something when Beck beat out Beyoncé to win the Album of the Year Grammy. When Kanye got to the microphone, he started to open his mouth and then thought better of it and walked off the stage to laughter.
While this led many to think Kanye was just making a well-intentioned joke at his own expense, a subsequent interview with him afterward made it clear that Kanye was legitimately upset that Beck won the award instead of Beyoncé.
“Beck needs to respect artistry and he should’ve given his award to Beyoncé,” rambled West during the E! after party. “At this point, we’re tired of it! Because what happens is, when you keep on diminishing art and not respecting the craft and smacking people in the face after they deliver monumental feats of music, you’re disrespectful to inspiration.”
Given how West seems to have been heavily inebriated during this interview, we’ll at least give him credit for not making this rant onstage during the actual ceremony. Nonetheless, it’s not as though the Grammys have completely snubbed Beyoncé in the past, since she did get the Song of the Year award in 2010 for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” so we have some trouble sympathizing with this particular complaint.
You can check out Kanye’s full rant in the video below.
