During a very gloomy Grammy Awards, the Internet perked up when Kanye West appeared to pull a Kanye West and stormed the stage in protest of Beyoncé not winning one of the biggest prizes of the night — album of the year — which went to Beck for “Morning Phase.”
Uh, maybe not. A few minutes after the ceremony ended, Kanye stopped by E!’s Grammy after-show with Kim and shared his true feelings about Beck’s win over Queen Bey. The gist: He was not pleased.
“Beck needs to respect artistry and he should have given his award to Beyoncé,” he said, adding: “Y’all know what it meant when ‘Ye walked on the stage.”
So, looks like he wasn’t so happy. We can’t really capture Kanye’s thoughts (who could?) so instead, here’s his entire rant (this one definitely qualifies as a rant) in which he questions the entire point of the Grammy Awards:
I just know that the Grammys, if they want real artists to keep coming back, they need to stop playing with us. We ain’t gonna play with them no more. “Flawless,” Beyoncé video. And Beck needs to respect artistry and he should have given his award to Beyoncé and at this point, we tired of it. 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 feats of music, you’re disrespectful to inspiration. And we as musicians have to inspire people who go to work every day. And they listen to that Beyoncé album and they feel like it takes them to another place. Then they do this whole promotional event, that, you know, they’ll run the music over somebody’s speech, the artist, because they want a commercial advertising. Like no, we not playing with them no more. And by the way, I got my wife, I got my daughter, and I got my clothing line so I’m not going to do nothing to put my daughter at risk — but I am here to fight for creativity. That’s the reason why I didn’t say anything tonight. But y’all know what it meant when ‘Ye walked on the stage.
Kim, on the other hand, said she wished that her husband had in fact fully stormed the stage. Her sister, Khloe, (one of the co-hosts of the Grammy after-show because the Kardashians essentially own E!) agreed and noted he always has next year.
“I want you to fight for creativity and you’re right,” Khloe said. “All hail Beyoncé. Queen Bey.”
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