Kanye West Is Running For President, Nothing Is Real

On Sunday night, Kanye West received the MTV Video Vanguard Award and took that opportunity to reenact his favorite part of Almost Famous while channeling a bit of Fiona Apple in her Tidal prime. It was definitely something.

After West started a personal chat with an arena full of people at an award show about how he’s been persecuted by the very people who watch that awards show, he talked about the ridiculousness of award shows. To make a point about the fleeting pointlessness (to some) of award accolades, he somehow felt it pertinent to out the tears Justin Timberlake shed at the Grammy’s when he did not win Album of the Year. Because you see, Justin is human too. “My Love” was a really good song, OK?

Then the camera panned to Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian-West, who looked like she wasn’t quite sure if her husband was going to go over the edge. Like, maybe she’d given him a pep talk at home and asked him to chill and maaaaybe he’d ignored her.

He then compared himself to Christ (again) and said that he wondered if he “died for an artist to have an opinion after they become successful.” Then he aired out MTV for stoking the Taylor Swift vs. Kanye West Beef for “ratings,” pointing out that they’d run it in numerous commercials.

“I still don’t understand awards shows,” Kanye said. “I don’t understand how… they get artists to stand on a carpet and for the first time in their life, get judged like they’re on a chopping block and have the opportunity to be considered a loser.”

Here’s the entirety of Ye’s “acceptance speech” but I think what Ye was trying to say was that it’s unfair to vilify a guy like him for years, and so strongly that he literally fled the country for awhile. It’s hard being famous, OK? So he was drunk and acted an ass on the VMAs, does that mean we all know Kanye well enough to judge who he is as a person? He certainly doesn’t think so. Also, vote Kanye in 2020 because he’s announced that he’s running for office.