Renown for speaking every corner of his mind, Kanye West lived up to tradition at his London concert last night.
In a sensational outburst following a performance ‘Clique’, the rapper relayed his hate for industry businessmen, as well as his dislike of Justin Timberlake‘s new single ‘Suit & Tie’ (being sure to assert his love for friend and song’s feature artist Jay-Z first). Most shocking, though, was West’s words on the Grammy’s – who he colorfully declared can “suck his d**k” after the industry juggernaut supposedly disrespected him.
And, as if that didn’t drive his angst home, the G.O.O.D Music general would later turn his attention to Taylor Swift‘s VMA win over Beyonce which he famously interrupted. Saying…
Given Kanye’s carefree courting of controversy, one has to wonder how much of this was pre-planned vs caught in the spirit pulpit preaching that it’s being hailed as.
Whatever the case, it’s certainly got folk talking – whether it’s for the right or wrong reasons will become more apparent in the days ahead.
It really begs the question, though: what will the ramifications be for this (if any)? For, his taking aim at the very entities that both fuel and fund his creative extravagance seems at best hypocritical and at worst disturbing. Indeed, from our vantage point, as wretched as this industry can be, there’s something inherently jarring about acts who willfully use it to climb the ladder and then turn around and critique it when they feel like to.
We love us some Kanye (and actually echo some of what he said), but this is kinda sort of rubbish.