No one sunk their career with their own bare hands like Kanye West. The Chicago rapper has intentionally or unintentionally invited himself to trouble which has affected his career fatally. Kanye West has lost all the respect he gained being a top-notch producer and a maverick artist due to his erratic behavior. He thought that artistic merit is a license to let oneself loose. So, when he took the liberty to introduce T-shirts with ‘White Lives Matter’, it did not sit well with anyone leading to a huge financial loss. The incidents that followed tarnished his image completely.
He went on a rampage to scathingly criticize the Jews so much so that he announced “def con 3” on them. However, there have been bouts of such behavior in the past which the industry overlooked. Be it his controversial Rolling Stone cover or his statement that slavery is “a choice”. Ye never feared the consequences of his actions despite the intensity of the acts. But, there was that one time when his career would be in danger when he stole the Taylor Swift moment from her on the MTV VMAs stage in 2009.
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Kanye West Felt Cornered After The Incident
One of the most radical moments of the last decade was the VMAs episode with Kanye West and Taylor Swift. The ‘Bad Blood’ artist came on stage to accept her award in the category ‘Best Female Video’ for ‘You Belong With Me’. Beyoncé was also nominated in the category for her smashing hit ‘Single Ladies’. When Taylor was about to give her gratitude speech, Kanye stormed onto the stage and took the microphone. He said, “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!”
However, the act of unnecessary defiance made Kanye insecure. Consequence is one of the longest collaborators of Kanye and a pioneering member of ‘G.O.O.D Music’ weighed in to describe what happened with the ‘Donda’ rapper after the incident when ‘Power’ from ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ did not work. While talking to HipHopDX, he said, “To be 100% honest, ‘Power’ is ‘Power’ now, but that was the first record off that cycle, and ‘Power’ was kinda the first time it didn’t go all the way. It didn’t do what ‘Gold Digger’ did, it didn’t do what ‘Can’t Tell Me Nothing’ did, and it didn’t do what ‘Stronger’ did”.
He continued, “So it was kinda like, ‘What we gonna do?’ We ain’t got no out-the-gates smash. We got a single and they playing it, but it wasn’t that one.” Kanye switched to a strategy where he started ‘G.O.O.D Fridays’ releasing a song per week until the album came out. However, the Taylor incident did affect his repertoire. The rapper further said, “It doesn’t eradicate the Taylor Swift incident. It’s not big enough to K.O. that. Brands ain’t gonna forget that touring ain’t gonna forget that, so forth and so on. So which put Kanye in a corner, and he came out flying”.
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Taylor Swift’s Ex Taylor Lautner Thought That The VMAs Fiasco Was ‘A Skit’
When the 2009 episode happened, the country-turned-pop icon was dating ‘Twilight’ star Taylor Lautner. During the night, Lautner handed the moon-man trophy to Swift. On his latest podcast ‘The Squeeze’, he recalled the incident when his wife Tay Dome asked him about the moment he wished he could go back to. He said, “Probably the 2009 VMAs when I presented the award to Taylor and was unaware that the Kanye thing was not a skit. … That would have been helpful to know”.
He continued, “I gave her the award … I took five steps back and was standing five feet behind her. In the middle of giving her thank you speech, Kanye jumps up onto the stage. I’m standing behind them. I can’t see either of their faces”. He could not hear what Kanye was saying. The actor thought that they are creating a funny moment as it is all staged. Taylor said, “The second she turned back around and I saw her face for the first time I was like, ‘Oh no. That wasn’t good. Probably should have said something’ “.
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