Music

Kanye Delivered A Very Loaded And Excellent VMA Speech, Also Premiered A Super Weird New Video

He talked about Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Amber Rose and the death rate in Chicago.

by Sinead Stubbins  29 August 2016

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The MTV Video Music Awards owe Kanye West a great debt of gratitude, given he’s one of the only reasons that people bother to tune in anymore (Calvin Harris won over Kanye, Drake and The Weeknd? Really, MTV?). Today while premiering his new video for ‘Fade’, Kanye delivered a mini-keynote and delighted the masses.

Taking the stage to the audience chanting “YEEZY, YEEZY!” Kanye laughed for a while and said, “Later tonight ‘Famous’ might lose to Beyonce, but I can’t be mad. I’m always wishing for Beyonce to win, so?”

Before presenting ‘Fade’ (and trust me, we’ll get to that) Kanye talked about the controversial video for ‘Famous’ which is an “expression of our fame right now” and explained that he has a lot of love in his heart. “I put Ray J in it, bro!” he said, laughing some more. “I see you Amber! My wife is a G, not a lot of people’s wives would let them say that.”

Because the world is wonderful, Kanye also managed to make a reference to Taylor Swift without ever saying her name. “I love all y’all… that’s why I called her!”

Even though the speech was only a few minutes long, Kanye also managed to discuss the death toll in his home city of Chicago, which has one of the highest murder rates in the United States (fellow Chicago-born rapper Chance the Rapper had his hands covering his mouth during this part). “If you see people die in front of you, you start to think ‘what’s the point?'”Kanye said, insisting that when you take away people’s “self esteem, resources and role models” then you leave them with nothing.

He shouted out his idol P. Diddy and pointed to Chance as the future. “We are undeniably the thought leaders,” Kanye said.

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“I MET KANYE WEST, I’M NEVER GONNA FAIL.”

Then Kanye’s video for ‘Fade’ came on and look, if you’re interested in watching some excellent dancing followed by NSFW shower sex and then Teyana Taylor turning into a cat (the new phoenix?) and hanging out with a baby and some sheep, in a metaphor I can’t quite figure out yet, go nuts!