With “Kanyegate” still in full effect after Sunday Night’s Grammy shenanigans, Kanye West called in to “On Air with Ryan Seacrest” early this morning to try and diffuse the situation. After much discussion about the voices in his head telling him to do things (while speaking about himself in the third person), one can’t help but think these types of apologies are doing more harm than good.
Why did you decide to get out of your seat and come up when Beck won album of the year?
You know, I felt like just the whole Grammys, right when that happened, everybody was looking at me and then people started screaming, “Kanye! Kanye! Go do it!” Ok, that didn’t really happen, these were voices in my head. So the voices in my head told me go and then I just walked up like halfway up the stage. You know, what I really wanted to do is just joke around about what had happened before, but I just really didn’t want to take away from Beck’s moment or the time he’s having to talk because you know the Grammys, they play music really quick no matter who you are and everything. So I didn’t want anything to take away from his screen time. So I just walked back down because you know, it was kind of a joke like the Grammys themselves.
Some say it was disrespectful to Beck. What would you say if you could say anything to him?
Well first of all, Beck is one of the nicest guys and one of the most respected musicians in the game. So, there’s nothing that I will want to do as a fellow musician to disrespect him in any way. And the weird thing is like, and I don’t feel like I have the right to take away from people’s moments, but the reality of it is — and case in point by who came up to me right afterwards — is it’s almost like a chiropractor. You know, you just get a little crook out like, “Wow, this crook has been there!” It’s just a little jolt of truth, right? And then you know, everyone feels better after the fact, or everyone is way more famous after the fact, or everyone sells way more albums after the fact, and then Kanye just goes on being an a**hole to everyone.
On his serious post-Grammys rant with E!:
Well you know what happened? It’s because I sat there and I kind of let that [smolder] and I was asked my opinion and I was given a platform. And when given a platform, it’s very hard as we know — and I’m going to talk in third person like I’m a crazy person — but it’s very hard for Kanye West to not be very true and vocal to what he feels. You know, it’s like people take the Grammys for granted in a way because of the commercials, because a lot of the musicians are very rich and everything, but this is our Super Bowl. You know, and someone’s got to be mad that [Marshawn Lynch] didn’t get the ball.
On the critics who say his stunt stemmed from racism:
I also wanted to stress to people that it’s not a black or white thing at all. It’s not me always standing up for a black artist. I feel that racism is a distraction to humanity. We are one race. We are the human race, period. And I feel that we have to base our new society, the future post-Internet society, off of blocks and bricks of truth. And if the Grammys are capitalizing off the amount of views that Beyoncé gets for them and still not laying that brick of truth and being respectful towards [deserving artists] — because Beck says afterwards, literally, says, “Hey I think Beyoncé should’ve won it.”
On his comment about Beck disrespecting artistry:
And when I said that thing about respect artistry, I think it came off the wrong way, and that was a mis-wording on my part because obviously Beck is one of the most respected artists and respects artistry. But I felt — and this is my opinion and he’s his own man and he’s not wrong and we’ll still go play basketball and stuff [unless] he doesn’t want to do it — but I felt that even though the Grammys some times gives awards to people who you wouldn’t think should win in the category, as a respect to artists, we mention the other artist’s name in our speech. And that was the point I was making about it. There’s like many of times I gave other people my award, literally made them come up onstage. Maroon 5, when they won best new artist, [Adam Levine] mentioned me because it was the College Dropout and [it had] 10 nominations and all that. Do you believe Beyoncé didn’t win because she’s so commercial, popular, and successful? I believe she didn’t move and run to the stage because she’s a respectful individual. But because she is so successful, a lot of times, success disables your ability to communicate exactly what the f**k you want to say!
So there you have it.
In related news: Beck responds to Kanye’s comment:”You can’t please everybody, man. I still love him and think he’s genius. I aspire to do what he does.” Bless him.
In other related news: John Legend responds to Kanye: “It didn’t hurt anybody,” Legend told Us Weekly. “Anybody who’s upset just needs to relax. It was funny.” The singer added that, while he was amused by West’s antics, Beck won the album of the year award “fair and square.” “Beck is super talented, and I have several of his albums and I’ve listened to him for a long time,” said Legend. “I think people were surprised that he won, but that doesn’t mean he’s not deserving. That just means people thought other people were going to win, too.”
The Twitterverse, of course, had its own opinions:
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