For the thousandth time now, Kanye turns being a douche in a trangressive act. Unlike other controversy-baiting outbursts at award shows, Kanye went there. He’s the only person that comes out of this looking bad. Not that he should be the only person. When Twitter’s all er, a-twitter with people invoking a lack of “class” and “cruelty” and pop-cult leeches like Perez Hilton–whose made a career of being cruel–randomly decide to put their foot down on this one, the places to point fingers are endless. Fuck it all assholism over self-congratulatory sympathy any day.
Taylor Swift’s a grown-ass woman. If she can have a music career, she can take a swaggering, drunk on henny, Kanye West from swiping the microphone from her. It didn’t help that pre-Kanye interruption, she was continuing her “I’m just a country singer” schtick that’s not only see-through, but offensive to her pragmatic-pop which is significantly more sophisticated and honest than her “aw shucks” sympathy-grabbing persona.
It was great to see Kanye pop-up, looking like a complete asshole–and knowing it. Something he did by showing up dressed like Colin Farrell–Amber Rose, like one of Moebius’ Dune designs–holding a bottle of alcohol and passing it to friends. The Swift speech hijack was just the culmination of it. The hijack though–it was like that part on Ghostface’s “Wild Flower” where some random-ass female rapper is dropping predictably female rapper swagger raps (“A mind shockin’/Body rockin’”) and Ghostface stomps through–”Yo bitch, I fucked your friend/Yeah you stink ho-”–and never gives the song back.
This blog characterized West as “a manchild who believes that the Video Music Awards reflect something beyond politics” but that’s completely wrong. West’s entire mic-grab, drunken-speech thing was in direct response to politics. The ones that dominate popular taste now, a kind of mediocre, push everything into the middle, so that sweet Taylor Swift gets an award too–because Beyonce couldn’t sweep, even though she should. There needs to be time for boring, regular people because giving a few more minutes to interesting, beautiful people just wouldn’t be fair. The in and out, rapid-fire empowerment anthem that is “Single Ladies” versus the sad-sack “regular girl” self-justification of “You Belong With Me”.
The song’s realities became plain reality when Beyonce, truly magnanimous (and confident, and concerned), offers some stage-time to Swift, who wanders into the exact same speech, the same schtick from an hour before, when the scary drunk black man swiped the mic. It was the character of her song, who trumps t-shirts over short skirts as if wearing one automatically makes you better, taking control of the pep rally and being as clueless and dopey as she’s purported the “pretty people” to be. All these weird round-about truths, bursting out the sides of a particularly pedestrian awards show, exposed. Thank Kanye.
further reading/viewing:
-Tweet from , September 14, 12:30 am
-”Ego: Beyonce’s Deconstructive Dick Joke” by ME
-”Music Video Round-Up” by ME from House Next Door
-”Kanye West: Back to Reality” by Maura of Idolator
-”Idolator Live-Blogs The 2009 Video Music Awards: Pop Goes The Post-Pop World” by Maura of Idolator
-Kanye performs “Good Life” on the VMAs, 2007
-”Run This Town”, “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” & “Good Life” from Jay-Z’s Madison Square Garden Concert, September 11th, 2009
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