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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF2YbvRLkno

Everyone thought it was a joke...until it wasn't.

Kanye strolling onto the stage as Beck accepted his Grammy for Album of the Year brought back visions of the 2009 VMAs debacle until he just as abruptly turned around, drawing laughter from a crowd that thought Kanye had suddenly gained a self-deprecating sense of humor. But after the show ended, he revealed that once again, he felt Beyoncé had been robbed. "At this point, we tired of it," he said, "because what happens is when you keep on diminishing art and not respecting the craft and smacking people in the face after they deliver monumental pieces of music, you're disrespecting inspiration."

Now, if Kanye had merely said that Beyoncé should have won the Album of the Year award, his statements here would have been far more defensible. But the way he stated his opinion implied that Beck's music is not inspiring and, in fact, is disrespectful to artistry. At best, this was a misinformed statement--Beck has been lauded throughout his career as one of the most creative forces in alternative rock--and at worst, it was Kanye's attempt at defining artistry in an exclusive manner that completely contradicts his objective to advance creativity in the world. Kayne has been so open to collaborating with lesser-known and widely diverse artists on his best work, so to see him trash another artist, especially one as accomplished and innovative as Beck, was disheartening.

Even more confusing is the fact that after disrespecting Beck, Kanye transitioned into another anti-commercialism rant that had no connection to his original point; if anything, Beck's victory represented a triumph of anti-commercial forces at the music industry's biggest event of the year. Overall, this entire speech was Kanye at his most irrationally spontaneous, his pro-Beyoncé emotions getting the better of him and leading to a fiasco of hypocrisy. Kanye eventually apologized for this tirade, and rightfully so.