Sometimes, Kanye, it’s better to be quiet.
The rapper drew laughs last night as he rushed the stage during Beck’s presentation for Album of the Year, a category in which Kanye’s pal Beyoncé was also featured.
To the great relief of all present, Yeezy stopped short of another infamous “Imma let you finish” moment, a la his meltdown during Taylor Swift’s big moment at the VMAs in 2009.
That said, he clarified later in the night that his protest was no in-joke.
Speaking at the E! After Party, he said:
“I just know that the Grammys, if they want real artists to keep coming back, they need to stop playing with us. We ain’t gonna play with them no more. ‘Flawless,’ Beyoncé video. And Beck needs to respect artistry and he should have given his award to Beyoncé. And at this point, we 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 and we as musicians have to inspire people who go to work every day and they listen to that Beyoncé album and they feel like it takes them to another place.”
“Then they do this whole promotional event, that, you know, they’ll run the music over somebody’s speech, the artist, because they want commercial advertising. Like, no, we not playing with them no more. By the way, I got my wife, my daughter and I got my clothing line, so I’m not going to do nothing to put my daughter at risk but I am here to fight for creativity. That’s the reason why I didn’t say anything tonight. But y’all know what it meant when ‘Ye walks on the stage.”
Kanye went on to use a Bey/Jay lyric in relation to himself and Kim – saying “Like the song say, I’m drunk in love right now – I don’t need Hennessy no more”.
Quite.
