At this point you should know that Kanye West is unfuckwithable -- and if you didn't, please just refer to Exhibit A, aka last night's Video Vanguard acceptance speech that basically obliterated every ideal MTV's owners aka Viacom stands for.
With his epic 13+ minute speech last night at the VMAs, he proved (once again) that he is one of the most powerful artist advocates in the universe -- prominent enough to turn the acceptance of an award symbolizing the success he's brought to MTV into a complete subversion of every materialistic thing that mass television stands for: awards, ratings, white success, anti-drug rhetoric.
By definition, the Video Vanguard Award is MTV's Lifetime Achievement Award, given to artists who've made a "profound effect on MTV culture" -- which Kanye has undoubtedly done and will continue to do. He will continually bring eyeballs and ratings to MTV's programming, simply by virtue of existing as his true self. And it was this true self that propelled Kanye to give us his cut-through-the-bullshit elevator speech, the kind of speech no other artist would dare to touch -- especially as MTV's golden Moon Man symbolizing decades of work was lying ignored on the ground beside him. It was an especially rousing gesture considering that this is the network that basically launched his mainstream career and those of many of his peers. And that's precisely why it was so thrilling when he called them out onstage last night.
Kanye just single-handedly steamrolled over everything MTV is promoting tonight: awards, whiteness and anti-drugs. He has my vote in 2020.
-- A Classic Lamb (@melodylamb) August 31, 2015Time and time again, Kanye has made it very clear that he is here to defend the artist, something he probably felt was mad ironic given the fact that there he was, accepting an award that represented his ability to jump over the fucking "chopping block" and trounce the relative "losers" -- aka his fellow artists. It probably irked him to no end that a ratings-driven machine that scripts beefs and paints him as an unbridled asshole still expects him to play nice at their award ceremony.
Too bad they forgot that Kanye is his own man, someone who doesn't follow a pre-determined script that lets a host low-key disrespect the love of his life on national television. In one of the boldest of "fuck yous" he possibly could've pulled, he thanked Taylor Swift for her graciousness in presenting him his award before exposing the ratings-thirst behind the choice to have her do so (not to mention all the ratings MTV got from constantly re-running footage of 'Ye's infamous 2009 "Imma let you finish" outburst).
The fact that Kanye is also the (black) embodiment of the antithesis to MTV consumerism is doubly extraordinary -- a fact he himself brings up continually. He purposely disrupts the system in an attempt to fight the MTV machine that, as his childhood friend Rhymefest hinted at, "aggressively mirrors a society that is hell-bent on (de)magnetizing Black artists from the community and ultimately making them disposable." It's the bleak reality of the industry today, and one Kanye has been very vocal about. Thank Yeezus that MTV didn't (or maybe did) realize he'd take the opportunity to tear 'em a new one.
Either way, Kanye will forever be the man of the mic drop. And we all better be listening.