Sigh. For the billionth time, Kanye West is out and about apologizing for his obnoxious behavior. Kanye kept his commitment to appear on the first episode of Jay Leno’s new prime-time show, and he had a few things to say about his behavior the previous night.
“Have you had a tough day?” Leno asked West, 32, as the studio audience erupted in laughter. Speaking seriously, West replied, “Yeah, it’s been extremely difficult.” He admitted to “just dealing with the fact that I hurt someone or took anything away, you know, from a talented artist or from anyone, because I only wanted to help people.”
Explaining why he was giving a shout-out to the other nominee, Beyoncé, West said, “My entire life, I’ve only wanted to give and do something that I felt was right. And I immediately knew in the situation that it was wrong, and it wasn’t a spectacle or just – you know, it’s actually someone’s emotions, you know, that I stepped on.”
Concurring with many of the sentiments expressed by critics since the incident, West said, “And it was very … rude, period. And, you know, I’d like to be able to apologize to her in person.”
West said he knew he’d erred “as soon as I gave the mic back to her and she didn’t keep going.”
Summing up what he did and how he now feels about it, West said, “I’m just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else’s hurt.”
Kanye continued to further rationalize his behavior:
“So many celebrities, they never take the time off,” he said. “I’ve never taken the time off to really — you know, just music after music and tour after tour. I’m just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else’s hurt. My dream of what awards shows are supposed to be, ’cause, and I don’t try to justify it because I was just in the wrong. That’s period. But I need to, after this, take some time off and just analyze how I’m going to make it through the rest of this life, how I’m going to improve.”
Ya know, Kanye, you pull this shit at pretty regular intervals. And normally it’s not that big of a deal to me, because you’re not out hurting other people, you’re just making a giant ass of yourself, which is your prerogative. I think you’re a genius — I’ll say that flat-out — but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to play by the same rules of social conduct as the rest of us. You said this in your song “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”:
I feel the pressure, under more scrutiny /
and what I do? /
act more stupidly /
bought more jewelry /
more Louis V /
my momma couldn’t get through to me /
the drama, people suing me /
I’m on TV talking like it’s just you and me
I mean, the entire song is basically you talking about how you realize what an asshole you’ve been since you got famous, how you regret those decisions. I’m pretty sure the last statement is a reference to this insanity:
Even if you were correct on that point, you know you have a tendency to behave inappropriately on live television. So WTF were you doing drinking a whole damn bottle of Hennessy before the show? How could you possibly expect that to end well? You don’t need to pull shit like this — your talent speaks for itself, and you have a perfectly large platform from which to reasonably express your concerns. Stop apologizing, Kanye, and start changing your behavior.
Update: Found the embed code for the Leno spot! Thank you to all of you who sent it to me! You guys ROCK. Tell me he doesn’t look hungover. :)
WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FUCKERY????? I hadn’t seen that video before. I’d heard his famous quote “G.B. hates black people”, but didn’t know the context. And I’m not talking just about that last quote, but the rest of it too. What the..? WHAT??? Wow. Just… wow…. Myers looked so uncomfortable and Tucker was like “WTF”… Nothing that came out of the moron’s mouth actually made any sense. NONE OF IT! How did he ever even get away with that? Why did they keep inviting him places after that? How is this guy making millions for being a complete idiot?! I just can’t get over that video… Didn’t they have a script? Myers seemed to have one… WTF??? I’m just speechless… speechless… I had kinda given up on this douche a while back, but now I give up officially. Wow…
“Nothing that came out of the moron’s mouth actually made any sense. NONE OF IT”
His incoherent rambling reminded me of Sarah Palin. Weird.
Thats funny as fuck…..I miss the drama that followed Palin, she was really good at making herself sound uneducated. Those two should run for office in the next election, how entertaining would that be.
No need. One bigger idiot (Biden) and one bigger narcissist (Obama) already made it in.
why did you have to go there jerzy? lol let the rants begin
Hey beet why did you completely ignore the part about Leno asking him what his mother would have thought of his behaviour……. that was out of line on Leno’s part. Who is he Kanye’s therapist? Kanye was a jerk to taylor swift but i actually think he is sorry, and truthfully he has said other artists (50 cent and outkast) were deserving of awards which he has received. The hurricane katrina thing.. well my opinion on that is that if I were a black american i would have been mad pissy too. it was true. it is hard to be fake in a moment like that and plaster on a smile. Spike Lee put the situation best, it took the american government 1 day to be in asia offering relief after the tsunami but 3 days before they were helping in new orleans. there is no excuse for that.
This is the part beet chose to omit for whatever reason……
Jay Leno then asked him how did he think his mother would feel about what he did and it was a long awkward uncomfortable 10-15 second pause before he answered:
Obviously I deal with hurt…and you know so many celebrities never take the time off. I’ve never taken the time off to really…. Music after music. Touring after touring. I’m just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else’s hurt. I don’t try to justify it because I was in the wrong period. But after this I need to take some time off and analyze how I’m going to make it through the rest of this life. How I’m going to improve because I am a celebrity and it’s something I have to deal with. And if there is anything I can do to help Taylor in the future or to help anyone… because I want to live this thing. It’s hard…
I’m sure they talked about what they wanted to cover before hand since it is common practice to go over the topics of the interview and I don’t think it was out of line on Leno’s part. Kanye even brought up Taylor’s mother and his mother in his original “apology” saying something like “I even talked to Taylor’s mother and she said the same thing my mom would have told me…” so her death is obviously a factor in his behavior.
Just because you may be right does not me you should speak up whenever you feel like it. There is a time and a place for both of his comments and Kanye needs to learn a little tact. Apologies are getting old and it’s getting to the point where they are like the boy who cried wolf. Or we can just feel sorry for him since he thinks he has an undiagnosed case of “baby tourettes”.
http://thelistenerd.com/2007/09/25/video-kanye-west-on-nightline-has-baby-tourettes/
I agree with you on the hurricane katrina thing. But there is so many different ways he could have expressed his feelings, like you just did for example. He was just talking jiberish! Just going on without any given sentence connecting to the previous or following one. Completly random! And stupid as hell!
“The hurricane katrina thing.. well my opinion on that is that if I were a black american i would have been mad pissy too. it was true.” ARE YOU KIDDING ME? A BLACK AMERICAN? WHAT ABOUT THE WHITE AMERICANS, ASIAN AMERICANS, SPANISH AMERICANS, ETC. THAT ALL LIVE IN NEW ORLEANS? New Orleans is a melting pot (for those of you who don’t know what that means, it means it’s got a little of everything) so for you to say that you would have been “mad pissy” if you were a black american makes you just as stupid as Kanye West was in that video. Let’s be factual here… just as many whites were affected in Katrina as blacks. As were all of the other races that live in/around New Orleans. I think it is fair to say that EVERY race was equally fucked over by the government during this disaster. You should probably know a little bit more about a topic before you go voicing your opinion on it.
Ok in 2005 68% of New Orleans residents were black, mostly democrats. George Bush doesnt like democrats.
So now he just wanted Democrats to die?
Of course. It ALL makes sense now since he had that election to win (oh wait, no, he wasn’t up for re-election) and Louisiana was already a Republican state. Katrina was TOTALLY the Republican ticket to re-election, obviously, and the death of all those people really sealed the deal for them in ’08!!!
C’mon.
hahaha. some people…
Yes, Beet. I think you said it PERFECTLY! You just said everything I’ve been feeling for the last 24 hours. Thank you for expressing that point.
Funniest thing Beet has EVER wrote. Kanye West is a genius. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. That guy’s music is fucking horrible. Tupac, Biggie… Elvis, Michael Jackson, Kurt Cobain… those are a few musical geniuses. Kanye West is a joke with an over inflated ego. The “genius” bar sure isn’t very high for Beet if this guy is one.
I think you are exactly right. He does this time and time again and just generally makes himself out to be a complete ass. One day someone is going to club him when he makes another douche move and he’ll be paying for it. As for the genius part, sure maybe in the aspect of always succeeding in bringing attention to himself (what he did was not only disrespectful and rude towards Taylor, his intentions of bringing Beyonce in to play were completely useless, I mean, if she hadn’t gone up there after and patched things up then all the attention would have been completely on him wouldn’t it?) I personally do not think he’s a genius at all, not musically or intelligence wise. There are so many other mint quality musicians out there that are a helluva lot smarter and less butthole than Kanye. I personally don’t think he should win any awards other than ‘biggest jerk’. Sure, you can apologize, but what if you just keep on doing it? It gets old Kanye… It gets old.
Oh yes that apology sounded so sincere.
It was as genuine an apology as that “Original Rembrandt” painting
the little Mexican kid was trying to sell me in Poza Rica this summer.
Kanye is a fucking tool. He can’t even articulate an apology without fucking it up. He never has a problem articulating his idiotic, hateful bullshit.
The only time his actions seemed to have bothered him is when Leno asked him what his mother would have thought about his stunt.
Maybe he should prefix his every word or action with that question so he stops being so fucking cruel and stupid on a regular basis.
Apology not accepted you “Moron”, you fucking “Whiner”.
Did you all hear about Obama calling Kanye a “jackass” while at CNBC during an interview? It was off tape but he said it. Everyone heard it.
Man if Obama thinks your a tool, that is saying something.
Not the first time he behaved like an idiot at an award show (won’t be the last time either, I guess…). Here’s a clip from the MTV Awards show that took place in Copenhagen a couple of years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5jLwDHF4uQ
Oh, btw, just go to around 3:07 of the clip if you just wanna see him behaving like a fool….
Best. Video. Ever.
Here is dipshit on Leno. He is a complete moron. LOSER!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkUWtuB6V7Y
He’s a classic narcissist who is surrounded by yes people and doesn’t understand normal social boundaries and because of his fame and money, he can hurt who he pleases, when he pleases no matter how inappropriate and he’ll say he’s sorry and do it again when he’s had enough liquid courage to drink and then he school the rest of us again. It’s his world, were just lucky enough to be in it.
He’s the king of the douchetards.
He’s not sorry and he’ll do it again. I wonder if it was his record company or Jay-Z who made him talk to Leno, but he couldn’t get out of that chair fast enough. Rhianna looked like she’s rather be in a car driving around with Chris Brown biting her ears again than be on stage with Kanye.
it really bothers me how everyone’s beaking Kanye so much harder than they ever did Chris Brown
like what Kanye did was a dick move but what Chris did was evil.
on facebook, everyone’s status was like “fuck kanye” and stuff
not one persons status was ever like “fuck chris” there were only a few “chris couldn’t have”s at the beginning…
maybe taylor swift is just more loved than rihanna? i don’t know…
I’m not sure I agree with you about there being a lack of outrage about Chris Brown’s criminal behavior; I seem to remember quite a bit of outrage.
Still, what Kanye did was crystal clear from the beginning and was the kind of thing he’s done again and again. At the beginning of the Chris Brown/Rihanna saga, no one was sure what happened.
Yes, there was plenty of outrage re: Chris Brown’s behavior, here on EB and in the comments. Check the pieces from that time. We called him every name in the book. There was less outrage from the Hollywood community, which still baffles me.
I totally agree with you, as I said on other comments. There is no way this two acts can be compared, but judging as the general reactions, they both deserve the same treatment.
I love the way Mike Myers keeps giving him these sidelong glances – like “whaT you say?”. Especially with the last statement “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”. I may agree with Kayne but this might not have been the right place to lay the claim.
OMGGGGG… I never saw the ‘pres bush’ video!!! Funniest shit EVER!!! throught Kanye’s thing mike meyers is just like ‘umm… ok!?’ the look on MM’s face.. priceless!
COMPARING THE TWO VIDS IS LIKE APPLES AND ORANGES. WHAT HE DID TO TS WAS WRONG, BUT WHAT BUSH DID TO THE PREDOM A.A. COMMUNITY IN NOLA WAS EVEN WORSE.
The worst part about all of this is, when he starts rambling on and saying things he doesn’t mean, he’s not only embarrassing himself, he’s embarrassing the others involved as well. You can clearly see how Beyonce was embarrassed, as well as Taylor Swift in the video on the VMA’s. In the one about Hurricane Katrina, you can clearly see how bad he embarrassed Mike Myers. I couldn’t imagine what I would be able to say after that. And seriously, being a resident of New Orleans, and have living through Hurricane Katrina, I can say for myself as well as MANY others, his speech did NOTHING for us. I mean, in a time of crisis against blacks AND WHITES (because New Orleans and the surrounding areas are not just black) how DARE he turn it about race. Because Hurricane Katrina did NOT discriminate against race. It was just completely ignorant and out of line of him to say the things like helping the black people, and the poor… or however he worded it. I suggest he quits while he’s ahead, because I’m sure he’s already lost a TON of fans because of his past incidents. You’re pathetic, Kanye. Seriously.
I completely agree with you. And I also lived through two hurricanes. And I’m white. Natural disasters do not target RACE. I didn’t take it personally when Ike and Rita came smashing down on the Texas coast. Those who think that only black people died and only black people’s belongings got demolished during Katrina are simply dumb and narrow-minded. That was a horrible time for millions (black, white, asian, mexican, italian, indian, EVERYONE), and for him to completely disregard the plight of all others was infuriating. The failure of the government was not due to RACE. Kanye is a fucking racist piece of shit asshole and it is NEVER ok to pull the race card during a NATURAL disaster that ended the lives of thousands and destroyed the property of millions.
Exactly. I am white, and my house my damaged… granted it didn’t hit my town DIRECTLY as bad as it did New Orleans itself. My Grandmother lost EVERYTHING. She is white. Her neighbor lost EVERYTHING, and that was a black family. Kanye West is just a racist human, and I personally don’t give a shit if he apologizes a thousand times, or every day for the rest of his life. It only takes ONE negative comment to void hundreds of positive ones. I mean come on, if you’re in the spotlight… you should probably ACT like people are watching your every move, and listening to everything you say, because, well… WE ARE.
Exactly. A tree went straight through my Uncle’s house like a warm knife through butter during Ike. But guess what? He didn’t blame the government.
Kanye’s a racist piece of shit. Fuck you Kanye, you don’t like white people? I don’t give a fuck, that’s your problem.
A genius? hardly.
I don’t think he’s a genious in any shape from or way… I do however think his fans are all even more stupid than he is for putting up with his shit!
I JUST LAUGHED SO HARD ITS UNBELIEVABLE.
OMFG! I laughed so hard the first time I watched that video I almost pissed my pants. I watched it again, and it was damn painful. Poor MM…And Jesus, does this guy always talk like that? Not only was he incoherent, but he sounds like he is only working with 15% lung capacity.
ummm…mad late ha. but kanye was 100% wasted…not giving him an excuse but are you really gonna make a big deal about someone talking drunk on t.v? he obviously shouldnt have made his own unintelligent speach on t.v or interupt taylor swift and her award but kanye is a drunk bastard. thats really all there is to say. ohh and kanye is a lyrical genuis for those who was trying to degrade his music. all hip hop sucks now a days but he was on the top charts like the best of them back in the day. and can still be considered one of the best