It's amazing how Twitter has so quickly revolutionized the way celebrities communicate with their fans, groupies, etc. One of the newcomers to this illustrious form of social networking is hip-hop's resident jerk, Kanye West. We all know the story by now: Kanye's music has come to revolutionize hip hop over the last decade, but his antics at awards shows and on TV have come to define him as an immature loose cannon with no regard or respect for the thoughts and feelings of others. This depiction of Kanye was epitmized last year at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, with innocent little Taylor Swift in the crosshairs. For those of you who (thankfully) had more important things to do in life than watch that garbage of an award show (it's hard to take the VMAs seriously when MTV doesn't even play music videos anymore, sorry), it went a little like this: Swift won the award for Best Female Video, upsetting the likes of Lady GaGa and, to Kanye's dismay and disbelief, Beyonce (her video for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" was also nominated). As she was accepting the award she clearly was not prepared to win, Taylor Swift began to be thrust into the spotlight in a way she never imagined (because she, for some reason, is still loosely considered a country artist). As her emotional acceptance speech drew on, West was seen storming the stage to take the mic from Swift and uttered these words, which shook the music world forever:
"Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'mma let you finish, but BEYONCE HAD ONE OF THE BEST VIDEOS OF ALL TIME! ONE OF THE BEST VIDEOS OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!!!!"
West shrugged, walked off the stage, with the crowds boos serenading him away. West reportedly left the show afterward, even though he was nominated for a few awards later in the night. The crowd booed West at every chance they had for the remainder of the night, and many artists went to their phones to "tweet" about how mean Kanye was. This, unfortunately, was only the beginning. Kanye-bashing became the easiest form of flattery, as pictures surfaced on the internet of West with a half-empty bottle in his hand before the show had even started (many assume Kanye Started with a full bottle). This raised questions about Kanye being an alcoholic, and led to an emotional interview on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
West has apologized on numerous occasions, and news of a new album broke earlier this year. Kanye has also initiated his "Good Friday" campaign, in which he releases a new song for free, every Friday. Now that he is beginning to become more relevant, West took the next logical step and got himself a twitter account. His first order of business? Signing up for a Twitter account, of course! And his first attempt at tweeting, Kanye began one of the most heartfelt, bizarre, incredible things to happen to twitter since the Vuvuzela got its own account during the 2010 World Cup. Among the many great tweets this rant produced, here are a few personal favorites:
(Author's note: all tweets are copy-pasted from West's twitter ver batum, with the time of post in front. All posts were on 9/4/2010)
(8:55 AM) Man I love Twitter... I've always been at the mercy of the press but no more... The media tried to demonize me
(9:00 AM) Even now a lot of articles start there first 2 paragraphs about how much of an asshole I am
(9:04 AM) Even though the NBC telethon was widely praised yall didn't think they was just gone let me get away with that did yall???!!! (referring to the infamous "George Bush doesn't care about black people" outburst)
(9:09 AM) How deep is the scar... I bled hard.. cancelled tour with the number one pop star in the world ... closed the doors of my clothing office (now referencing the fallout of the Taylor Swift incident)
(9:12 AM) Remember in Anchor Man when Ron Burgandy cursed on air and the entire city turned on him? But this wasn't a joke. This was & is my real life
(9:24 AM) People tweeted that they wish I was dead... No listen. They wanted me to die people. I carry that. I smile and take pictures through that
(9:26 AM) I wrote a song for Taylor Swift that's so beautiful and I want her to have it. If she won't take it then I'll perform it for her
(9:35 AM) I'm ready to get out of my own way. The ego is overdone... it's like hoodies
(9:43 AM) I watched Justin Timberlake at the Grammies loose every televised award including album of the year which the Dixie Chicks won
(9:46 AM) I would have ran on stage for Justin that night because Sexy Back (in my mind) was that important... that impactful to our culture (I think this was intended to be grouped with the previous tweet)
(9:59 AM) Yes I was that guy. A 32 year old child.
(10:04 AM) These aren't regular tweets... this is stream of consciousness ... I want you guys to know and feel where my head is at...
(10:33 AM) I've hurt, I've bled, I've learned. I only want to do good. I am passionate I am human I am real. I wish I could meet every hater
(10:38) I'm sorry Taylor.
(The last tweet posted was also the last tweet in the rant.)
For every tweet posted above, there were about fifteen more. However, this begs the question: What do we take from this? This answer, like much of Kanye's legacy, is quite blurry. At times, he seems sincere and contrite, showing that there may be a new, improved Kanye. However, there are other tweets (like the hoodie one above, among others) where Kanye shows traces of pure insanity. It can also be argued that West's off-the-cuff approach shows his true colors, allowing fans to see his true emotion regarding the topic. However, what role did Twitter play in all of this? West has a regularly updated blog, in which he first expressed his regrets from that fateful night at the VMAs, why not just use that? Was he just "apologizing" to bring attention to his new Twitter account? The truth of the matter is, unfortunately, is that many of these questions will go unanswered. The mind is one of the most complex things on the planet, and Kanye's may take home the #1 slot. Whether we ever see the real Kanye or not is irrelevant, because at this point I don't even think Kanye himself knows who the real Kanye West is.
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