Making the West of things.

Ah blog, how I have neglected thee. But now my dreaded MA dissertation is behind me (and a well deserved holiday), I am back to scrutinise the world of politics, sport and celebrity. This brings me to Sunday night’s MTV Video Music awards and Kanye West’s utter humiliation of Taylor Swift, during her acceptance speech for best Female Music Video. For those who missed this narcissistic-oversized-child in action, take a look:

Now no-one else in their right mind would be so misguided into believing they are self-righteous enough to storm the stage, interrupt a young female artist during one of the highlights of her career and state another artist should have won. Well I suppose at least this time he didn’t believe it was an injustice against him. Mr West has caught the spotlight a number of times for being outspoken in recent years. Back in 2004 he accused George Bush of ‘not caring about black people’ during the rescue efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. In 2006 he developed his first taste for stage storming when his video for ‘Touch the Sky’ lost out on best music video to Justice and Simian’s ‘We are your friends’. West interrupted their speech and claimed the awards lost ‘credibility’ if he didn’t win as he had spent over $4 million on his video which featured Pamela Anderson.

Kanye West really needs a reality check. I am convinced the man puts himself in the same bracket as Frank Sinatra, Elvis and Michael Jackson. He describes himself as the ‘thinking man’s rapper’ who believes his lyrics are somewhat comparable to Shakespearian sonnets. In truth, whilst his albums certainly are a fresh approach to the hip hop genre, at the end of the day he is only human and should not strut around like there is an aura of greatness surrounding him. To effective ruin a young artists big night is downright shameful. I accept West has come out to apologise to Swift, but I question what convinced him to interrupt her in the first place? This man clearly has a number of self indulgent issues which he needs to put right before he can be accepted as anything close to the musical icon which he believes himself to be.

In the end, the real winner of ‘Westgate 2009′ is Beyonce. Embarrassed and humbled, when she took to the stage after winning several awards for her track ‘Single Ladies’, she invited Swift back to the stage to complete her speech. She made the best of a very awkward situation and came out smelling of roses, good on her!

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~ by nicksmiffy on September 15, 2009.