Mr. Kanye West, whether you love him or hate him is an inspiring, truly visionary and evolving artist who’s music has thrived throughout his career. West has been nominated for over 350 awards, has received 20+ Grammys and countless other awards recognizing him as “Best New Artist,” “Best Rap performance,” “Best Male Video,” “Best Collaboration,” the list goes on.
However, Kanye has also received a bunch of attention-often negative in relation to when he interrupted Taylor Swift at the VMA’s roughly seven years ago.
Regardless, I was delighted to hear that Kanye West was receiving the Michael Jackson Vanguard Award at the MTV Video Music Awards, Sunday evening. I wasn’t sure what exactly he’d do when he’d accepted (a short performance?) (Acceptance speech?) Kanye gave a speech, which some will call a rant-that lasted a little under ten minutes. Before I begin, I would just like to make clear that the following bullets are my interpretations of his words but I also want to emphasize that once a poet/artist/politician’s words are spoken, given, they are open to interpretation and criticism by those who wish to engage with it.
This article is my attempt to make sense of Kanye’s words based on how I see things. Basically, I went through his speech and created some themes/points based on his actual words to fully lay out the many things her touched on. [PS scroll for the link to the video/transcript of the speech]
Enjoy:
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on millennial’s potential power to change so much of what is wrong with the world
“We the millennials bro. This is a new mentality.”
on the radicalness of confidence and self love, even though it can be difficult at times
“I’m confident I believe in myself.”
on temporality and the present
“worry about how you feel at the time.”
on the criminalization of marijuana, delegitimization of it in terms of productivity and easing anxiety
“Y’all might be thinking right now, “I wonder did he smoke something before he came out here?” And the answer is yes, I rolled up a little something, I knocked the edge off.”
on art as activism not always being polite and the individual choice that some people make
“I will die for the art for what I believe in and the art ain’t always gonna be polite.
on that piece of human nature that makes us want to be liked
“I’ve been conflicted bro. I just wanted people to like me more.”
on competition, ranking art over other art
“I still don’t understand award shows.”
on the nature of him receiving the award from Taylor (who in relation to West is regarded as a hyper-innocent white girl)
“Do you know how many times they announced Taylor was gonna give me this award? Because it got more ratings?”
on the role of politicians in having platforms to speak, legitimacy of non-political figures
“I’m not no politician bro”
on what award shows do for ratings, exacerbation of celebrity conflict
“all this shit they run about beef and all that”
knowledge of words/phrases to accurately voice ones opinion/lived/seen reality
“I didn’t know how to say the right thing, the perfect thing”
on fighting for justice, but sometimes disrespecting people in the process
“The problem was the contradiction…I do fight for artists”
conflicting thoughts on his past actions because of his positionality as a new father
“If I had a daughter at that time would I have went on stage and grabbed the mic from someone else’s?”
the power of the images that get reproduced and replayed in people’s minds and across media
“Oh you’re not that bad after all”
the importance of youth today
“listen to the kids, bro”
on pleasing the ancestors amidst the struggle
“if my grandfather was here right now, he would not let me back down.”
the bigger picture outside of the individual
“it’s about new ideas bro people with ideas people who believe in truth”
on wanting to facilitate change and growth in this nation and the world
“I have decided in 2020 to run for president.”
Kanye West had a lot to say, and this is just what he was able to articulate last night. His image, presence, and words that evoke feelings of love, hate and confusion are drawn from the man himself and the images that have surfaced in relation to him. I think he has a lot to say and a lot more to create and I look forward to trying to understand more of it.
The full video and full text can be viewed here.
thejonellaqueen 