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Savorria Smith
Professor Sipin
English 110C
March 10, 2015

Kanye West big Out Burst

In 2009, a historical moment happen when Kanye West came on stage an interrupted
Taylor Swift while she was accepting her award for Best Female Video. His actions that night
raised a lot of eyebrows. While Taylor was accepting her award an about to give her speech,
Rapper Kanye West came on stage and stopped her midsentence and said Im sorry Taylor, but
Beyonc had one of the best videos of all time (Huffington post). A lot of people felt as though
his actions were racist an ignorant.
Kanye West sent a message to his fans, and the public that he felt as if Taylor Swift was
not as good as Beyonc, which could had been construed as racism (Huffington Post). In addition
to this Rant, Kanye West lose his temper back in 2007 because MTV gave him a small set
instead of the big stage to preform (CNN). Kanye is known for doing ridiculous stunts and
putting himself into the spotlight, but that night at the VMAs he went overboard. Kanye West is
a very well-known artist in the Hip-Hop industry and has numerous awards in various categories.
For example, West help produced one of Jay Z album The Blue Print 3, which debut at No. 1 an
sold over 400,000 copies (Entertainment Weekly). Prior to that night Kanye had been dealing
with some personal issues of his own.
A day after the VMAs aired a voice recording had leaked all over the web. In the
recording Kanye West was expressing why he felt the way he did. Kanye West argued that he felt
Beyonc should have won over Taylor Swift because his mother got arrested for sit-ins and died
from complication with plastic surgery in 2008, and there wouldnt be any Elvis with a James
Brown (Huffington Post). Kanye west was very close to his mother; therefore, there were

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Savorria Smith
Professor Sipin
English 110C
March 10, 2015

numerous pictures of him and his mother in the media. When his mother died back in 2008 it
took a toll on the Rapper. Kanye West had many encounters with MTV where they did not let
him preform, or they limited his time where he could only sing one song, whereas they let other
artist such as Pink sing multiple songs (Huffington Post). When reporters questioned Kanye West
about his actions he stated My mother died for this fame shit! I moved to fuckin' Hollywood
chasing this shit. My mother died because of this shit. Fuck MTV"(NY Daily News). Kanye
West felt that MTV catered more to the Whites rather than the blacks because they let Pink
perform two of her songs that according to him nobody knew of instead of letting him performed
his hit new song Heartless, which is a popular song and made a lot of noise when aired for the
first time (NY Daily News). In addition, a lot of Awards shows for example, the Grammys or
Oscars do not give out to many awards to African American artists. Kanye West felt they do not
look at talent as they do race. Even though his song Heartless was very popular they did not let
him sing it that night at the VMAs.
Rapper Kanye West is known for flipping out when something do not go his way, and he
gets a lot of bad publicity for it too. The media went wild that night when he bluntly interrupted
Taylor. Kanye West did get the message across of how he was feeling to the public, but a lot of
celebrities did not like it. One celebrity, Pink actually called him out on his actions and got
praised all over the media. The President called him out on it as well and said he was A Jack
Ass (The Atlantic). Kanye West eventually apologized days after, and Taylor Swift accepted it;
however, the two still had some tension between them until they had lunch together and squash
the drama they had. Kanye West mention in an interview that the Taylor Swift episode he

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Savorria Smith
Professor Sipin
English 110C
March 10, 2015

wasnt being selfish, but selfless because he was risking everything he worked for to get it ruin
by expressing his feelings (The Atlantic). He was very persuasive in letting people know how
he felt, but a lot of people still do not like him.
All in all, nobody is perfect. A lot of people make mistake and Kanye West learned the
hard way. Awards shows like the Oscars do not look at the talent so much as they do the artist
and race. The Oscars give away many awards to white artist, actress and actors. Maybe once in a
blue moon they will give out an award to an African America Artist. Kanye West just felt that
they catered more to whites rather than blacks. The rapper has been dealing with death of his
mother and he was upset with how his mother died from trying to fit in. West probably did not
have bad intension but that is how it came across.

Reference
France, Lisa R. "Anger over West's Disruption at MTV Awards." CNN. Cable News
Network, 14 Sept. 2009. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.

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Savorria Smith
Professor Sipin
English 110C
March 10, 2015
Maresca, Rachel. "LISTEN: Kanye West Alleged Rant Leaked after Taylor Swift VMA
Confrontation." NY Daily News. N.p., 19 July 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.
Marcus, Stephanie. "Kanye West Allegedly Rants About Taylor Swift And Racism In
Leaked Recording." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 18 July 2013. Web.
10 Mar. 2015.
Samuels, David. "American Mozart." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 02 Apr.
2012. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.
Stack, Tim. "Kanye Steals The Spotlight." Entertainment Weekly 1067 (2009): 11.
MasterFILE Premier. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.