Kanye West's 10 Most "Kanye" On-Camera Moments

http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/videos/kanye-west-vma-....

This is Kanye at peak Kanye. He rants. He rambles. He speaks with an authenticity indicating that when he took the stage, he had only a vague outline of what he would say. And he finishes by dropping the most outrageous line of his career. I, for one, hope he'll follow through on his promise.

There's a lot to sift through in this 13-minute blaze of glory. So let's take it quote by quote:

- "The problem was the contradiction. The contradiction is I do fight for artists, but in that fight I somehow was disrespectful to artists. I didn't know how to say the right thing, the perfect thing." Taylor Swift presented Kanye with the Video Vanguard Award that precipitated this speech, so naturally Kanye reminisced on the nadir of the 2009 VMAs. He acknowledged his inability to articulate his opinion in a tactful way, but still defended his stance on art. He could have gotten into many other contradictions he embodies, but this was an important one to address, particularly in the wake of his criticism of Beck after the 2015 Grammys.

- "I've been conflicted, bro. I just wanted people to like me more. But fluff that, bro! 2015! I will die for the art! For what I believe in. And the art ain't always gonna be polite!" The Kanye-is-Jesus metaphor is one he's kept up since the beginning of his career, and here it reached full bloom: Kanye sees himself as a martyr for celebrities, a self-destructive whirlwind who in turn has paved the way for other artists, particularly black artists, to become more than just musicians. And yet despite what he said, Kanye is still too self-conscious to be able to tune out the world's opinion of him--why else would he have addressed it? He's never been able to delete his own image from his head. That's why he can't escape the grip of materialism, even as he rails against it in "New Slaves." That's why he feels the need to call himself the most impactful artist of his generation. But that's also what gives him the clarity of vision to see the underlying racism behind aspects of his public perception and fight that on a large scale.

- "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 not gonna teach low self-esteem and hate to our kids. We gonna teach our kids that they can be something. We gonna teach our kids that they can stand up for theyself! We gonna teach our kids to believe in themselves!" Some call it narcissism, but Kanye has always been characterized by a tremendous sense of pride. And while it rubs many people the wrong way, framed in another light it's actually really inspiring. Why, after all, should humility be rewarded? In one sense, genius work should speak for itself, but in another, why do we respond so hatefully when the person behind the work tells everyone about how brilliant they are?