Kanye West is a master of self-promotion. He doesn’t really think before he speaks, which makes him a polarizing and controversial figure. This generally leads to headlines. His rapid firing, uncensored neurons also make him one of the most talented rappers in the game. He is well aware that there is no such thing as bad publicity, and he knows how to milk that cow for all the cream it can muster. Still, he sometimes behaves badly, and deserves a public chiding to keep him in check. Here are Kanye’s six most ridiculous moments worthy of ridicule.
6. Crashing Taylor Swift’s Award Acceptance
With this one coming in at number six, you know the rest of them have to be serious, social faux pas. For those who are unfamiliar, Taylor Swift won an MTV Video Music Award over Beyonce’s “Single Ladies,” a few years back. Kanye took exception, crashed the stage and wouldn’t let Taylor have the microphone. He proclaimed that it was a terrible decision that an award go to Taylor over Beyonce, being that Queen Bey offered one of the greatest music videos of all-time. See, Kanye loves to speak in absolutes, and base his arguments in conjecture and personal preference. The public did not take kindly to his interrupting Taylor Swift, with President Obama going so far as to say Kanye acted like a jackass. Honestly, who was surprised?
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5. 250K Punch
Once upon a time, not long ago… Kim Kardashian had an appointment scheduled at a medical office in Beverly Hills, and she had a short and intense verbal altercation with another patron, who was allegedly 18-years-old. When Kanye arrived moments later, and learned of the situation, he chased down the 18-year-old, engaged the kid in another argument, then finished the argument with a punch to the face. Knowing that Kanye is close to the size of a hobbit, this didn’t hurt the young man, who was also in the wrong for yelling at poor Kim over preferential issues… “I don’t like you,” type stuff. There were no formal charges filed, and the story plays out that Kanye settled with the young man for a cool $250,000 sum. Hopefully this kid realizes that’s the easiest 250k he’ll ever make.
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4. Dissing Beck at the 2015 Grammy Awards
It got close to being ugly at the 2015 Grammy Awards, when Beck was announced as the winner for Album of The Year. Woo. Kanye wasn’t happy. Not happy at all. He thought Beyonce deserved this award… again. This time, he stopped short of the stage, though he was invited to come up and make a fool of himself by none other than Beck. After the show, Kanye, Kim and some other people, were shooting the breeze, and Kanye launched into a typical diatribe… the public should be honored by the presence of he and artists like Jay-Z and Beyonce and, if they’re not going to get the awards they deserve, they should stop coming. He went on to slam Beck. It was only a few weeks later when he heard Beck’s album for the first time, and realized that the Grammy went to the right person.
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3. Greatest Rock Star On The Planet
This one offered immediate entertainment. More of Kanye being Kanye, and in fairness to the guy, he wouldn’t enjoy the success he’s had if he didn’t feel this way to some degree. Again, the’s painting it with a single color, based on his preference, perspective and agenda, but… regardless, Kanye is not the greatest rock star on the planet. Need he forget that people like Robert Plant and Jimmy Page are still living and making music? That two of the four Beatles are still making music? That the Rolling Stones are still touring as they push beyond 70 years of age? Kanye’s not even the best rapper in the world today. Several well-known musicians took exception to his off-the-cuff claim, and refuted it via Internet, Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, and onstage, Pete Townshend of The Who.
Glastonbury Festival
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2. “Jesus Walks” Rolling Stone Cover
It’s obvious that Kanye West has a serious God complex. The cut “I Am God” from his album, Yeezus, says it all. That said, the Rolling Stone Magazine cover featuring Kanye in a crown of thorns was a bit much. This, of course, came just a few months after number one on this list, so he had already become a polarizing figure. For someone to claim that Jesus is a hero, it doesn’t seem like he’s ever actually read one of the canonical gospels. Still, where would we be without the sheer entertainment of lyrics comparing Kanye’s relationship to a Creator God and Jesus as cosa nostra, derived from the Sicilian Mafia. A phrase roughly translating to “Our Thing.” Sure, Kanye. Whatever you say, man.
Source: Rolling Stone
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1. George Bush…
In the history of live, television broadcasts, this moment was one of the craziest. Kanye West, paired with Mike Myers, was trying to raise money for the Red Cross following Hurricane Katrina, the most devastating natural disaster in United States history. Mike Myers did what he could to set his inherent, comedic qualities aside, but he couldn’t have possibly understood with whom he was sharing the screen. This was Kanye’s first, public moment of “Really, man!?” After Mike carefully read the scrolling teleprompter, Kanye West went rogue, and launched into one of the most unintelligible diatribes of all-time. He was overcome with emotion, and his brain was going faster than his mouth could keep up. Eventually he dropped his dime: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”