After being sequestered in that “suite” that looked like a Sheraton piano bar during a brownout and somehow not winning any awards last night–unlike friggin’ Fergie, who didn’t even bother to show up, the talentless, piss-stained turbo-skank (sorry)– Kanye claimed that his days of letting MTV/the music industry/the cosmos/George Bush kick him around were over (for real, this time):
“Kanye was watching the closing performance [a medley featuring Justin Timberlake, Timbaland and Nelly Furtado] on a closed-circuit monitor, and he started getting upset,” a source who was backstage told MTV News. “He started asking anyone who’d listen why he wasn’t allowed to perform on the main stage. ‘Why did I perform in just a suite?’ he was saying. ‘Justin’s my boy, but even he gets to perform in both a suite and on the main stage? Something’s wrong here.’ “
After which he vowed never to return to any future MTV functions.
After which I vowed to anxiously await the eventual mixtape track where he mumbles over an Of Montreal loop and tries to explain why he was totally taken out of context (yet again), to be released just in time for the next award show he wants/needs to make a scene at.
If he does sample Of Montreal, I hope uses the Outback commercial.
I have to agree with him, he was one the best artists there yet not performing on the main stage. I don’t wanna see some crappy “party coverage”. I thought the whole reason I force myself to sit through this crappy show is to at least see one good (full not just a snippet)performance.
i suppose that is weird, since he was the main person featured on all the Vegas billboards for the VMAs…
Graduated indeed.
I dunno, I’m going to have to agree with him on this. That was biggest clusterfuck of a television program I have EVER seen. His performances, albeit it in that truly conceptually bizarre “party” setting, was/were the best thing of the entire night. Sure they let him do the bulk of “Good Life,” but thats not his hit, thats not the song he needs to be pushing. They showed a minute or so of “Stronger,” and it was really sounding great. I thought the way they treated him, and frankly all of the artists who were, theoretically, being honored that night, and I’m using theoretically in the strongest sense. They gave out what seemed like 5 awards, and they were all bizarre, made up categories. Monster Single? Quadruple Threat? Wha’? Dudes got the #1 album and its not even technically released, he deserved more time and more respect. JT’s album has been out for a year or so now, and props to him for keeping it going, but being that the VMA’s is essentially a marketing event, Kanye deserved not to get pissed all over. I guarantee that whatever performance he would have done on the main stage would have been a whole sun, not just a ray of light, amongst the shit fest that was the VMA’s. SO good for Kanye, I hope he sticks to his word, and I hope more people follow his example. Sure he’s got an ego (some take issue with this, I really don’t mind it, ego and boisterousness are part of hip hop and music) but he’s also got a very valid point. He deserves to be angry in this case. MTV totally made music, much like the rest of the channel, a sideline event. Only problem was, they seemingly didn’t have a main event to put it all together. It was just a bizarre production.
Also (sorry to vent so much, but i was for some reason totally livid after the show) how hard is it to put the right music with the right video. During the “best video” category nomination montage they put the wrong Justice song with the images for the “D.A.N.C.E.” video. Really? That’s a pretty tough thing to fuck up. That little blip in a wider fuck up that was that entire show, really goes to show where their priorities are. I hope this was the death howl of that fucking show. It’s got progressively worse as the years have gone on, but they really upped the ante this year and took it to a terribleness that I really couldnt have seen coming.
I ddnt even watch the vma’s cause i figured all the best parts would be on the internet sans commercials. But they didnt give kanye the main stage? Thats kinda weak considering Graduation is the best thing to come out since the last JT record.
Oh well, doesnt matter as kanye should WTFPWN the rest of the year if theres any justice (no pun) at all.
As the rednecks I used to work with would say, don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya. Maybe Justin got to perform on the main stage because he’s a better and more interesting performer than you ‘Ye.
Also, piece of free advice, how about cutting back on the wholesale sampling a bit (Daft Punk, Michael Jackson in just the two most recent songs I’ve heard.) The Puff Daddy sound is so 1997.
I’ve been on Kanye’s side since the craptacularly amazing video for the craptacularly disgusting song ‘The New Workout Plan.’
But besides that, yes Kanye, fuck MTV.
Could he also vow not to return to the somebody brought their friends / he puts them in the Benz rhyme, while he’s at it?
I’d also enjoy it if he could vow to somehow redact the entire song of “Barry Bonds” from Graduation. That and “Drunk and Hot Girls” are back to back, and they are both the very, very low points for me on the album.
That being said, he deserved a spot on the main stage. He’s one of the most popular and influential hip hop artists out there right now, and MTV should have given him his due.