Kanye West received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at tonight’s MTV Video Music Awards, and he closed his acceptance speech by announcing he’s running for president in 2020. really!
Kanye West was honored in a big way during Sunday night’s MTV Video Music Awards by receiving the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, an accolade previously awarded to superstars like Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Madonna and The Beatles throughout the show’s more than 20-year tenure.
He accepted the prestigious award but not without a 13minute acceptance speech that blew any previous Kanye moments way out of the water.
West
Prior to Yeezy taking the stage, Taylor Swift talked about the infamous 2009 VMAs Best Female Video debacle that pinned the two hit makers against each other for years to follow.
Taylor said any feud between the two was laid to rest long ago, admitting that Kanye’s 2004 College Dropout was the first album she bought on iTunes.
“I’m really happy for you and Imma let you finish but Kanye has had one of the greatest careers of all time,” Swift playfully joked as the honoree prepared to deliver his speech.
As the crowd chanted his name, West looked visibly overwhelmed before recanting his numerous regrets surrounding the career-polarizing move.
“If I had to do it all over again, what would I have done? Would I have worn a leather shirt? Would I have drank half a bottle of Hennessy and gave the rest of it to the audience…? If I had a daughter at that time would I have gone on stage and grabbed the mic from someone else’s?” he asked.
West then spoke at length about being changed by fatherhood, defending artistry, the hypocrisy of media, the ridiculousness of award shows, and smoking a little something before getting up on stage “to take the edge off.” Yes.
Two thousand and fifteen. I will die for the art, for what I believe in. The art ain’t always gonna be polite. Y’all might be thinking right now, “I wonder, did he smoke something before he came here?” The answer is yes, I rolled up a little something to knock the edge off. I don’t know what’s gonna happen tonight. I don’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow, bro. But all I can say to my artist, my fellow artist, just worry about how you feel at the time man. Just worry about how you feel and don’t never… I’m confident, I believe in myself. We the millennials, bro. This is a new mentality. We’re not gonna control our kids with brands. We’re not gonna teach low self esteem and that to our kids. We gonna teach our kids that they can be something. We’re gonna teach our kids that they can stand up for themselves. We’re gonna teach our kids to believe in themselves. If my grandfather was here right now he would not let me back down. I don’t know what I’m finna lose after this, but don’t matter though cause it’s not about me. It’s about ideas bro, new ideas bro. People with ideas. People who believe in truth. And yes, as you probably could have guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president.